Vineyards Magazine

Roots, memory, and terroir 

April 2024. Isole e Olena presents the latest vintage of the estate’s legendary wine, Cepparello 2021.

This wine best represents the search for excellence that has always characterized Isole e Olena. A project that today continues along the same philosophical and qualitative lines with the new ownership, the French group EPI, which has helmed the estate since 2022.

“Cepparello was conceived as an audacious departure from tradition when it was considered impossible to produce a monovarietal Sangiovese. Today Cepparello remains what it has been, not a single-vineyard project but a quality project-selection of grapes from our finest vines. That painstaking selection process has been, and will always be, as a continuous dialogue with our estate vineyard, which, of course, is itself in a state of constant growth and evolution”, remarks Isole e Olena CEO Giampiero Bertolini.

“Our dynamic relationship with the vineyard”, continues Giampiero Bertolini, “and with the vinification process has characterised and guided Isole e Olena through its entire history. Today, that tradition constitutes a privileged vision essential for de-codifying the present and for building the future”. Its totally artisanal methods and concept of terroir linked to the hand of man have always enabled Isole e Olena to gaze deeply into the future and to move ahead of its times, to become a pioneer of innovation while remaining at the same time a guardian of tradition.

Cepparello, which debuted in 1980, matures 18 months in French oak barrels, new and used in a proportion of one to two, then rests in the bottle an additional year before release. 

The 2021 growing season started off with two significant challenges, low temperatures in spring, followed by heavy rains. These phenomena influenced both budbreak and flowering, resulting in a decreased production. But generous groundwater reserves from the spring rainfall helped the vines cope with the summer heat and develop normally. September brought warm, sunny days and crisp, cool nights, ensuring a gradual, consistent ripening, with lively acidities and complex, refined aromatic expression of the berries.  

“Cepparello 2021 is striking for its shimmering ruby appearance”, comments Isole e Olena Director Emanuele Reolon. “The nose is redolent of wild red berryfruit, followed by nuances of earth, sage, and violets, an authentic interpretation of its terroir. The palate is vibrant, rich with pronounced aromas that are tangy and sinuous, leading to a rising finish”.

Cepparello’s impeccable elegance is a tribute to Sangiovese’s ability to express its terroir, which at Isole e Olena is an interrelated complex of elevation, distinctive soils, and human brilliance. 

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Isole e Olena, one of the truly historic brands in Chianti Classico, with distinctive character. Unfettered visionary Paolo de Marchi was the public face of a winery whose hallmarks are elegance and anti-conformity; that heritage is now borne by Director Emanuele Relon, who carries forward the same production philosophy and striving for quality. The estate, which since 2022 is a member of the French group EPI, lies in San Donato in Poggio, in the western area of Chianti Classico, and comprises 56 hectares of vineyard planted at 300-500 metres’ elevation. The portfolio standard-bearer is the all-Sangiovese Cepparello, whose inaugural 1980 vintage, a pioneering Super Tuscan, significantly shaped the history of Italian wine. This innate dedication to innovation has always marked winegrowing research at Isole e Olena, which over the decades has adopted “quality evolving” as its operative mantra. Pursuing this goal, the producer has intensified the authentic character of its own Chianti Classico, crafting an ultra-aromatic, magisterially-balanced Isole e Olena eloquently expressive of its high-elevation terroir. But Isole e Olena is reaching even further, striving to showcase the quality potential of international varieties through a cadre of monovarietal Chardonnay, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon labels. The estate offers a Gran Selezione too, produced in very few bottles and only in the finer years, as well as a Vinsanto, prized by connoisseurs of this Tuscan tradition.