A dynamite expression of Alicante Nero, more commonly known across the Mediterranean as Grenache in France, Cannonau in the neighboring island of Sardinia, and Garnacha in Spain. A vivid, lively, and really quite pretty wine with loads of ripe strawberry and floral aromas and flavors, a dash of cracked black pepper and a savory undertone of olives, dried cherries, rosemary, and licorice. On the lighter side of medium-bodied with just enough bite, and a crisp finish. A great accompaniment to anything grilled.
Born in 2002, Ampeleia consists of a number of vineyard parcels, all differing in height, aspect, and soils, and all focused on varieties more commonly seen along other Mediterranean coastlines: Grenache, Mourvedre, Carignan, Alicante Bouschet. The project aspires to represent the inherent diversity and huge potential of this particular area of Maremma, the ‘Colline Metallifere,’ which are not the coastal lowlands one usually associates with the Maremma, but mineral-rich hills that have been mined since Etruscan times. These are varieties whose own histories are as complicated as the histories of the people who grow them and moreover, are varieties that, in capable hands — in this case, those of longtime winemaker Marco Tait — carry in them a striking sense of place. Marco has been at the helm of Ampeleia since the very beginning. (Like Ampeleai’s founder, Elisabetta Foradori, he, too, is originally from Trentino, where his father was the agronomist at Foradori.) After enology school and working for some larger, more conventional wine operations in the North, he came to Ampeleia, initially skeptical about the power of biodynamics. But Ampeleia is a special place, and its unspoiled nature and inherent biodiversity allowed biodynamics to take root much more quickly. All activities at Ampeleia had been converted to biodynamics as of the 2009 vintage. It's hard to overemphasize words just how attuned to Ampeleia Marco and his team are. This is no small thing, as Ampeleia's vineyards are diverse and spread out – 120 hectares of land, but only 35 planted to vines, with a wide variety of altitudes, exposures, soil types. The rest is woods, olives, the vegetable garden, and pasture for Ampeleia's animals.