Isole e Olena

There was a time when serious Tuscan wine meant either following the old Chianti recipe — Sangiovese cut with white grapes and lesser reds — or abandoning Sangiovese altogether for Cabernet and Merlot. Isole e Olena found a third way, and it changed the argument: take Tuscany's own grape, farm it obsessively, and bottle it alone. The wine they made doing that is called Cepparello, and it's part of why anyone takes Sangiovese seriously today.

The estate sits in the western hills of Chianti Classico, formed by knitting together two old properties — Isole and Olena — whose names it still carries. For decades it was the life's work of one man, and it remains one of the most respected addresses in the zone.

The man who bet on Sangiovese alone

For most of its modern life the estate was Paolo De Marchi, whose family bought the land in the 1950s and who spent decades proving a point most of the region hadn't yet accepted: that Sangiovese, on its own and from the right sites, could stand with the great reds of the world. In the early 1980s he pulled his best parcels into a single wine — Cepparello — and, because pure Sangiovese fell foul of the appellation rules of the day, released it not as Chianti Classico but as a humble table wine turned icon. It became one of the defining "Super Tuscans," and one of the few built entirely on the native grape rather than on imported Bordeaux varieties.

That's the estate's whole DNA: faith in Sangiovese, and the patience to farm it well enough to justify the faith. In the early 2020s the estate changed hands, acquired by the EPI group, with a new winemaking team taking the reins. The vineyards and the flagship wines carry on; it's worth confirming where the style sits now before you buy on old reputation alone.

Cepparello made a simple, radical argument — Tuscany's own grape needs no help — and won it.

The wines

Start with the Chianti Classico. The estate's regular annata is one of the most reliably excellent in the whole appellation — bright red cherry and violet, savoury Tuscan earth, fine tannin and real length — and it's the truest, best-value way into the house. Don't treat it as the warm-up act; it's a benchmark of what Chianti Classico should taste like.

The flagship is Cepparello — 100% Sangiovese from the best sites, structured and pure and built to age a decade or two. It's the wine that made the name, and it belongs on any short list of reference Sangioveses. Buy it to lay down; it repays the wait with depth the young wine only hints at.

Then the sleeper: the Vin Santo, made the traditional way from dried grapes and long barrel-ageing, and widely held to be one of Tuscany's greatest sweet wines. It's the collector's afterthought worth chasing — tiny production, extraordinary depth, the kind of bottle you open once a year and remember. The estate has also made small-lot Cabernet and Syrah over the years; the Sangiovese, though, is the soul.

The setting

The vineyards sit high in the western reaches of Chianti Classico, on the galestro and alberese soils — the flaky marl and limestone — that give the zone's best Sangiovese its perfume and grip. The altitude keeps nights cool and the wines fresh and aromatic rather than heavy, and the old farmhouse-and-cellar heart of the estate is classic Tuscan hill country: cypress, stone, and long views over vine and olive. It looks exactly like the postcard, and unusually, the wine lives up to the view.

Visiting

Assume appointment-only and arrange it ahead — and check the current policy directly with the estate, since access can shift under new ownership. This is a working Chianti Classico estate in the hills, not a walk-in tasting room, and it rewards a planned visit rather than a drop-in. String it into a wider day through the Chianti hills — the Florence-to-Chianti route puts it within easy reach — rather than making it a special pilgrimage.

Can't get an appointment? The wines are the reliable way to meet the estate. A bottle of the Chianti Classico is the honest introduction; a bottle of Cepparello is the argument that made the name.

What to buy

Let the vintage decide, then match the bottle to the occasion. For most tables, the Chianti Classico is the pick — the house style, the pedigree and the value in one glass. If you're buying to cellar and want the wine that changed how the world sees Sangiovese, chase Cepparello from a fine year and give it ten years. And if you love a great sweet wine, the Vin Santo is a rare, extraordinary thing worth grabbing whenever you see it.