On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of her flagship Sangiovese, Poggio Valente, Elisabetta Geppetti, with her children Clara and Ettore, organized a vertical tasting of this Maremma cru.
I remember when I met Elisabetta Geppetti, well over two decades ago. I knew her by reputation, of course, and I knew her wines, but we had never met. We were participating in a round table discussion with Tuscan wine women. There were her, Elisabetta Stucchi Prinetti of Badia a Coltibuono, Ginevra Venerosi Pesciolini of Tenuta di Ghizzano, Laura Bianchi of Castello Monsanto, Donatella Cinelli Colombini and, as journalists, Patrizia Cantini and me. Beyond the beautiful circumstance, I was struck by her beauty, her elegance, her class.
We became friends and I followed the incredible journey he did with his Fattoria Le Pupille From queen of Morellino di Scansano to owner of a winery with an international profile, with two highly iconic wines: the Saffredi, Bordeaux blend, and the Poggio Valente, pure Sangiovese. The latter cru in particular, with the release of the 2021 vintage, celebrates the 25 years and a vertical tasting of 20 vintages of the wine was organized in Florence to mark the occasion.
The genesis of Poggio Valente
It had all started, in fact, in 1996 with the purchase of 10 hectares of vineyard facing southwest on a hill overlooking the village of Pereta and Mount Amiata. Important but not too high altitude, about 300 meters, Sandy soils with a sandstone substrate mixed with clay. It seemed ideal for a Sangiovese, at the time not yet as pure as after 2012, but already strongly identifying. First vintage produced 1997.
Elisabetta was fascinated by this vineyard, which was later replanted, and she passed this love on to her children Clara and Hector, now with her in the company, the former for 12 years in marketing and sales, the latter from 2019 in production. And it was Ettore himself who talked about the wine, its recent history, with the latest vintages, from 2014, now out of the Morellino DOCG, unfortunately, a sign that the appellation cannot sustain wines of this positioning.
2021: the 25th anniversary year
Regarding the last vintage, the 2021, Ettore recalled how it was a vintage that yielded great results in the winery with minimal reduction in quantity. Elisabetta added: “The evolution of Poggio Valente’s style is moving toward more and more elegance of fruit, consistent with the entire Fattoria Le Pupillecollection.” After the tasting, we cannot but agree with her, having noticed the commitment to leave behind the power proper to the early decades of the 2000s, which perhaps winked a bit at international markets. The search for more tension, elegance, gracefulness, while not denying the Maremma soul of the wine, is evident.
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