Bibi Graetz Testamatta: 2000-2019 vertical

There is nothing shy and retiring about Bibi Graetz. With a castle and winery in Fiesole, and a wine brand that has been highly successful internationally, there is little for him to be modest about. He also has a gift for publicity, rooted in his earlier career as an artist and reflected in the splashy vivid colours that adorn his labels.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 14 vintages of Bibi Graetz’s Testamatta

In 2021 I attended a vertical tasting of Bibi’s top wine, Colore, and this March he presented almost every vintage of his Testamatta wine since its debut year of 2000.

Thanks to videocalling technology he was able to conduct the tasting on a single day to a network of importers, sommeliers, press and consumers around the world in 12 cities as dispersed as London, Seoul, Tel Aviv and Lisbon.

Vineyards have long formed part of the family estate of Castello di Vincigliata, but they were leased on contracts that were due to expire in the late 1990s. Graetz decided to retain them and also to produce wine from them. Since then the project has expanded, with numerous labels at different price levels. But Colore and Testamatta, both Sangiovese-based, remain his top wines.

Graetz sources his grapes from old vines, and since 2015 there have been six sites throughout Chianti Classico, mostly leased, that supply his red wines. The age of the vines used for Testamatta ranges from 30 to 50 years and they are grown at elevations between 350 and 650 metres.

Most vintages are pure Sangiovese, but some of the early wines also contained some Canaiolo. Production, once very limited, has grown to around 150,000 bottles, and the pricing is ambitious.

Developing style

Graetz had no formal training in wine production, which may explain the name of the wine, which is Italian for ‘hothead’.

For his initial vintages, he hired the well-known consultant Alberto Antonini to advise on the viticulture and the winemaking. It soon became clear to Graetz, however, that his wines reflected the consultant more than the vineyards – they were super-concentrated and steeped in new oak and, as was the intention, immediately attracted the attention of wine critics. But Graetz himself was unhappy with the style and in 2004 he took back control of the production process, from farming to bottling.

He dispensed with temperature control and bleeding of the tanks, using numerous daily punchdowns for extraction. No press wine was used. The wines were aged in older barriques and casks for 30 months. By 2008, the farming was organic.

There is a clear change of style from the mid-2000s. The very extracted, dense style of the early vintages gave way to a fresher, livelier expression more typical of Sangiovese from the Chianti region. Those first vintages have aged well but are unlikely to improve, whereas there is greater vibrancy and better balance in the years that followed. They are also true to the vintages in which they originated, and Graetz is often able to make wines that surpass the reputation of certain difficult years.

But are the wines as remarkable as their producer and his devotees would have us believe? They are far from being the only wines made in the Chianti zone from old vines, low yields, natural yeasts, and discreet barrel-ageing.

The trend in the region is moving towards single-vineyard wines that each have their own typicity.

Testamatta is a blend – a very good blend, but a regional expression of Sangiovese rather than a highly individual one. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but each wine lover must decide for themselves whether the wine is really worth the high asking price.

Bibi Graetz Testamatta vertical: Stephen Brook’s verdict

Related content

Suvereto: Regional profile & names to know

Mastroberardino producer profile: a taste of elegance

Barolo in depth: Serralunga plus 10 wines worth seeking out