Ampeleia Bianco di Ampeleia 2023

Ampeleia's origin story began, fittingly, at altitude: in the winter of 2000, three wine enthusiasts — Elisabetta Foradori of the celebrated Trentino estate that bears her name, Milanese entrepreneur Giovanni Podini, and Thomas Widmann — sat in a mountain hut 2,153 metres up in the Dolomites and dreamed up a project built entirely around naturalness. They spent two years searching Italy before finding what they wanted in Roccatederighi, in the little-known Alta Maremma, settling there in 2002. Marco Tait, who trained partly under Foradori and absorbed her biodynamic philosophy in the process, took over the cellar at just 22 and has run it ever since — a South Tyrolean revolutionary who ages every wine in cement, with not a single wooden barrel anywhere on the property. The estate has farmed its 35 hectares of vines (out of 120 hectares total, the rest left wild to protect biodiversity) biodynamically since 2009. Bianco di Ampeleia, first released in 2016, comes from a genuinely co-planted vineyard at La Rocca, 550 metres up on schist, palombino, and clay — Trebbiano Toscano, Malvasia Bianca, and Ansonica grown, harvested, and fermented together rather than blended after the fact, given a direct press and skin infusion before six months resting in concrete tanks.

The result is elegant and understated, a deliberately lighter, more easygoing counterpoint to the estate's flagship Cabernet Franc — fresh and mineral, with real texture from the skin contact and a naturally low alcohol (around 10.5%) that keeps it lively and food-friendly. It reflects Ampeleia's whole philosophy: humble, direct, and authentically tied to a specific, rarely-explored corner of Tuscany far from the Chianti and Montalcino spotlight.