Isole e Olena Cepparello 2018

Bright and beautifully focused in the glass, with tremendous depth,it is positively stellar from the very first taste. Succulent dark cherry, plum, licorice, spice, menthol and coffee all open up with a bit of air. Here, too, Paolo De Marchi has done a tremendous job in preserving freshness in the wine.

In the 1950s, the father of current winemaker Paolo de Marchi purchased the adjoining hamlets of Isole and Olena and their estates in the Tuscan commune of Barberino Val d'Elsa. Paolo entered the business in 1976 and the quality of the estates wines improved rapidly after decades of sharecropping. Di Marchi is one of the regions kings of the Sangiovese grape, at a time when Chianti was a blended wine it was he that stepped out to produce wines that were 100% Sangiovese. The wine, the true embodiment of the word Super Tuscan is the Cepparello IGT which has gone on to become an iconic wine and a benchmark for the Chianti region. The estate also produces stunning Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Chianti Classico.