2004 Cepparello

Proprietor Paolo De Marchi has left an indelible and highly personal stamp on Isole e Olena and all of Chianti Classico, for that matter. Originally of Piedmontese descent, De Marchi stands apart from many of his colleagues for his vocal opinions and intense dedication to the vineyard above all else. Since taking over his family's estate in the late 1970s, De Marchi has transformed Isole e Olena into a powerhouse.

The flagship Cepparello is 100% Sangiovese aged in French oak barrels. This nearly complete vertical charts the history of one of Tuscany's most compelling wines. The first Cepparellos were vinified in cement. The cellar was heated to induce malolactic fermentation and the wines were subsequently aged roughly equal parts Slavonian oak casks and smaller French oak barriques, with a dollop of chestnut barrels thrown into the mix. It was a time of enormous sacrifice, given that green harvesting was viewed as throwing money out the window, and every purchase of new French oak barrels was accompanied by a stern reprimand from De Marchi's father to pay attention to costs. But De Marchi persevered. The fruits of his hard labor and pricing are amply captured in these magnificent wines.

Over the years Cepparello has acquired a level of finesse it rarely had at the outset. Some of the refinements include giving the wines more air in vinification and an increase in the period of elevage in oak from 12-14 months to 18-20 months, which is the norm today. De Marchi says he started getting better quality oak around 1993, but it is the increased age of the vineyards themselves that have given Cepparello its finesse.

Isole e Olena Cepparello Key Points: 1. 100% Sangiovese aged in French oak barrels 2. The top selection of the estate's best fruits from their vineyards in Barberino Val d'Elsa, in the northern part of Chianti Classico 3. A style that emphasizes finesse over power, especially with bottle age 4. Aging potential: 20+ years

Owner Paolo de Marchi is one of those gifted winemakers who excels with any grape type he touches. His roster of wines includes a great Italian chardonnay (no, that's not an oxymoron), some of the top cabernet sauvignons and syrahs, stellar Chianti, fine Vin Santo and a sangiovese Super-Tuscan called Cepparello that is always one of the best. You might not know that the latter bottling, though usually mentioned as a pure sangiovese, actually contains up to 8% of cabernet in less than great vintages. And if you don't believe me when I say the man's a genius with just about any grape variety, try his attempt at nebbiolo with the Lessona wines he makes at his new estate in Piedmont (Proprieta Sperino). They're mind-blowingly good.

This is a terrific set of new releases from Isole e Olena and proprietor Paolo De Marchi, one of the long-time qualitative leaders in Chianti Classico. “I used to be labeled a modernist, now I'm labeled a traditionalist,” says De Marchi with a chuckle. The estate produces a wide range of outstanding wines including the superb Cepparello, one the region's top high-end 100% Sangiovese bottlings. In my multiple tastings of the wines I noticed that Cepparello has become much more accessible at an early age than in the past. In recent years De Marchi has experimented with higher-density vineyards and new clones of Sangiovese. He believes that Cepparello's newfound level of finesse is directly attributable to the fruit he is sourcing from those parcels. Both the 2003 and 2004 versions are outstanding. “Clearly 2003 was a challenging harvest, but we learned from previous hot vintages such as 2000 to leave as much leaf cover as possible,” says De Marchi. Readers should not ignore the Chianti Classico, regularly one of the region's finest, nor the more internationally-styled wines, which are differentiated from the rest of the line by their Collezione De Marchi label.