Poggio Valente 2019

— Offer —

This is a wine I offered back in 2023. I’ve had a number of you raving to me about the quality of the wine, especially for the money - and asking if any more was available.  

After looking around for a bit, to my surprise, I was able to snag a few remaining cases in Europe.   The nice part is, I am able to offer at that same incredible price. To illustrate how good this price is, I received a call from the importer complaining that my price was better than a number of distributors wholesale price across the country. I said welcome to my world - I deal with that problem just about every day! The racket of multiple middlemen in the wine business, adding little to no value is a whole other conversation. Another day, another time.

If you missed this one the first time around, do yourself a favor and grab some! The 2019 is an incredible vintage in Tuscany, in fact, some are saying it’s the best in the last decade! Don’t take my word for it, take a look at the huge reviews from all the critics. This is a Home Run!

— Story —

Fattoria Il Pupille calls itself “a modern and entrepreneurial viticultural reality,” “a heterogenous reality,” and a “mosaic property,” resembling the varied hues of Tuscan vineyards in autumn.  

While we’re all contemplating what “heterogenous reality” means, we can speak to one of the pieces in the “mosaic property” of winegrower Elisabetta Geppetti, which is Poggio Valenti; a single vineyard of about 35 acres, gently sloping near the Maremma coast at 900’ in altitude, close to the village of Pereta. 

Elisabetta and her daughter orchestrate aesthetics and quality in a grand Tuscan style, but with no adversity to modern technology. For example, they have embraced optical selection, which is an advanced optical sorting machine with cameras picking grapes based on programmed properties like size, color, ripeness, etc. Nothing but perfect grapes are allowed!   

Poggio Valenti’s soils appear totally sandy, but a subterranean mix of sandstone with clay help conserve moisture for those arid summers. 

“With Poggio Valenti we started a kind of revolution starting with the 2012 vintage,” Elisabetta says. This meant eliminating the Super Tuscan Merlot in the blend, although the wine remains an IGT Toscana. “We decided to change completely the style of this wine, making the decision to focus on 100% Sangiovese while also experimenting with the wine’s maturation in wood, adjusting the size of the casks.” They used mostly French oak, settling on “big tonneaux” of 500 and 600 litres, about 50% new. 

Elisabetta thinks of verticality, elegance, and freshness when making her wine, carefully monitoring the maceration of about a month’s length, all in stainless steel. 

Considering its painstaking production, this wine represents an amazing value.