Ampeleia

Unlitro – a name that is the programme and at the same time sums up the entire philosophy of Ampeleia. At a time when wines are becoming ever more complex, the team around Elisabetta Foradori and Giovanni Podini are focussing on the essence of winemaking: creating an honest, easy-drinking wine that expresses the beauty of the Maremma landscape without embellishment. The grapes for this special blend of Alicante Nero, Sangiovese, Carignano, Mourvèdre and Alicante Bouschet come from the organically farmed vineyards near Roccatederighi. Here, just a few kilometres from the Tyrrhenian Sea, the vines thrive on the characteristic Galestro and Alberese soils of the Maremma at an altitude of 200-400 metres. The Mediterranean climate, with its warm days and cool sea breezes, creates ideal conditions for wines with natural balance and freshness.

Ampeleias Alicante Nero epitomises their mission like no other wine. When Marco Tait and his team re-cultivated this almost forgotten autochthonous grape variety from the Alta Maremma in 2003, they set an example against the monoculture of international varieties. What was once suppressed to make room for fuller-bodied grape varieties is now proving to be one of the most authentic expressions of the Mediterranean terroir. The grapes come exclusively from the single vineyard "Vigna della Pieve" at an altitude of 250 metres, where sandy soils are interspersed with pebbles and conglomerates. This special soil composition gives the Alicante Nero its characteristic lightness and harmonious balance. As part of the "Monovarietali" project, this wine is vinified with the utmost care according to biodynamic principles.

This is where Ampeleia's true masterclass is revealed: the Cabernet Franc from the single vineyard "Vigna dell'Asina" is the centrepiece of the "Monovarietali" project and shows why this grape variety has become the flagship of the winery. What began as a vision in 2003 has developed into one of the most precise expressions of the Tuscan terroir. The vineyard lies at an altitude of 500 metres and combines ideal conditions: Clay-rich soils interspersed with characteristic Galestro limestone rocks and Palombini formations create a unique microclimate. Contrary to the expectation that clay soils produce heavy wines, wines of surprising elegance and purity are produced here – a phenomenon that can only be observed in Roccatederighi. Vinification follows Ampeleia's purist approach: 20% of the grapes undergo carbonic maceration as whole bunches, the rest are destemmed. After two weeks of maceration, the wine matures for nine months in cement tanks – for nine months in cement tanks without the use of wood in order to preserve the varietal characteristics unadulterated.

The Colline Metallifere – the Metalliferous Hills – take their name from what people have been extracting from the ground here for thousands of years: copper, iron and silver. An ancient mining landscape, part of the UNESCO Geopark since 2024, set amongst volcanic and limestone soils that bear witness to three million years of geological history. 500 metres above sea level, in the Alta Maremma, Demeter biodynamic. Elisabetta Foradori – the woman who brought Teroldego back to life in Trentino – founded Ampeleia together with Giovanni Podini and Thomas Widmann, because they believed that this place, with Cabernet Franc, could express something it has never expressed elsewhere.

Empatia. A wine name that describes neither a grape variety, nor a terroir, nor a style. Rather, it describes an attitude. The ability to put oneself in someone else’s shoes – into the soil, into the vine, into the moment of harvest. An attitude that suits a winery which calls itself ‘Gentle Souls’ and for which biodynamics is not a certification, but a way of life. Merlot at 500 metres. In the volcanic and calcareous soils of the Colline Metallifere, where the heat has a different quality to that of the flat Maremma coastal plains, where the nights are cooler and the winds blow down from the Metallifere hills. 30 hectolitres per hectare – the same radical yield restriction as for the Ampeleia Cabernet Franc. Cordone speronato. Harvest in the third week of September. Then the most unusual decision in the cellar: whole berries. Not whole bunches with stems – whole berries – the individual, undamaged berry. An extraction method that gives the wine a freshness and an inner tension that crushed grapes can never produce.