The Maremma region in Southern Tuscany is a destination for the Italy connoisseur. Uncrowded – by Tuscan standards – the scenery is a mix of vine-covered slopes and hill towns which have been sculpted from volcanic rock since Etruscan times. Yet according to Fattoria Le Pupille owner Elisabetta Geppetti, Maremma was considered a distinctly inferior terroir when she planted the Saffredi vineyard in 1985.
Maremma was not considered a premium winegrowing area in the 1980s, but she wanted to prove otherwise. Geppetti was only 20 years old when she inherited Fattoria Le Pupille, an estate in the province of Grosseto. After her father-in-law, Alfredo Gentili, decided that she was ready to take the reigns, Geppetti enlarged the estate to the current 75 hectares and founded Maremma’s first Super Tuscan, the Cabernet-based Saffredi.
They have been fortunate to work with several esteemed winemakers, including Giacomo Tachis – the oenologist behind Sassicaia and Tignanello – Riccardo Cotarella, Christian Le Sommer and, since 2012, Luca D’Attoma,” she explains. D’Attoma was responsible for making the 30th vintage of Saffredi, a milestone which Geppetti and her two children are proud to celebrate.
The vineyards, regardless of what their grapes are destined for, are constantly and competently looked after, with the objective of interacting in the best possible way in the relations between plants, microclimate and soil, to stimulate the best conditions of the grapes development and maturation, without forgetting the respect of the environment. Once the grapes have been picked, they are put through the strictest selection process; the grapes that are still in one piece enter the vinification cellar to start their course on the base of their structure and potentials. It is a modern and functional vinification room, with steel tanks of different dimension, all with an electronically controlled temperature, while the maturation cellar is located underneath the arches of the manor house, where situated are the woods used for the Riserva of Morellino, Poggio Valente and Saffredi.