2021 Fattoria Le Pupille Saffredi

Product Description

In the early 1980s, Tuscany’s Maremma was a wild, sleepy corner of the region, better known for its cattle, cowboys and coastline than for fine wine. Elisabetta Geppetti saw something more. Still in her early twenties, she left her university studies to take over Fattoria Le Pupille in 1985, determined to show the world what this sun-soaked land between the hills and the Tyrrhenian Sea could achieve. Over the following decades she grew the estate from a handful of hectares to around 75, championed the local Morellino di Scansano so tirelessly that she became known as “La Signora del Morellino”, and helped put the entire Maremma on the international wine map.

She did not do it alone. Two mentors shaped those early years. The first was her father-in-law, Alfredo Gentili, known to all as Fredi, whose love of the land first sparked her passion for wine. The second was Giacomo Tachis, the legendary oenologist behind Sassicaia, Tignanello and Solaia, a close friend of the family who guided the winemaking until the late 1990s. Since then Elisabetta has worked with some of Italy’s most respected consultants, and today she is joined in running the estate by two of her children, Clara and Ettore, whose energy is shaping its next chapter.

The estate’s icon is Saffredi, whose name is an affectionate tribute to Fredi. First made in 1987, it was the Maremma’s first Super Tuscan, a bold statement at a time when few believed the region could produce wines to rival the great names further north. Its vines grow on a single hillside near Magliano at around 250 metres, on soils of sandstone, marl, clay and iron-rich minerals, where warm days are tempered by cooling breezes from the nearby sea. The earliest vintages were pure Cabernet Sauvignon. Over time the blend has evolved, and today Cabernet Sauvignon leads, joined by Merlot and a touch of Petit Verdot, matured in fine French oak barrels whose toast is kept deliberately light so that it never dominates the fruit.

The result is one of Tuscany’s most celebrated reds and a wine critics have praised for over three decades. Saffredi combines the depth and structure of a great Bordeaux blend with a Mediterranean warmth and generosity all its own: layers of blackcurrant, dark cherry and plum, notes of graphite, cedar and Mediterranean herbs, polished tannins and a vibrant, energetic finish. Approachable in its youth yet built to evolve beautifully in bottle for many years, it remains a pioneering expression of the Maremma and a true modern classic of Italian wine.