Fattoria Le Pupille winery
"Vision and passion"
Elisabetta Gepetti
Fattoria Le Pupille winery
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One of the great visionaries of modern Italian viticulture is undoubtedly Elisabetta Gepetti, who has decisively changed viticulture in the Maremma since the early 1980s. Elisabetta Gepetti developed a passion for wine at an early age, which she says she inherited from her grandfather. It was the early 1980s and the Maremma was known for wheat and special breeds of cattle, but certainly not for wine. Nevertheless, Elisabetta's grandfather had planted vines for the family and for local sale. The typical grape variety was Sangiovese, but in this part of Tuscany it was called Morellino - Morellino di Scansano.
However, nobody outside the neighbouring villages knew this wine. Elisabetta wanted to change that, so she went on an apprenticeship to understand how wine of national and supra-regional importance could be produced in the Maremma. She met the visionary oenologist Giachomo Tachis, who worked for Marchese Antinori and had made wines such as Sassicaia, Tignanello and San Leonardo famous and heralded a new era in Italian viticulture.
He also became her advisor and she took over the family vineyard, naming it Le Pupille after the building that would adorn the label of her Morellino. By limiting yields, picking at the right time and a few other measures, her wine quickly became famous. She triggered a spirit of optimism in Tuscany and in 1992 became president of the Consorzio Morellino di Scansano, which she co-founded.
However, it was another wine, which she describes as her sixth child alongside her five biological children, that really established the worldwide fame of the winery and the winemaker: „Saffredi“. For this wine, she and Giachomo Tachis selected Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah and Petit Verdot and planted them on a five-hectare vineyard between Scansano and Magliano. 1987 was the first vintage of this first Supertuscan of the Maremma, which changed the world of wine. In the 1990s, Elisabetta Gepetti was able to take over the Poggio Valente vineyard in Pereta, which now covers 85 hectares. It is now run by Elisabetta's daughter Clara Gentili.
© Images: Fattoria Le Pupille Winery
