The changing face of Le Pupille’s Saffredi

When Elisabetta Geppetti launched her Bordeaux blend, Saffredi, in 1989, Super Tuscans were already receiving acclaim and ruffling the feathers of the authorities. But they didn’t come from the Maremma.

Coastal Maremma was off-the-beaten track and its wine, Morellino di Scansano (Morellino is the local name for Sangiovese), was little-known and even less cared about. The new Super Tuscans aside, the reputation of Tuscan wines was in a pretty poor place.Elisabetta Geppetti was an unknown quantity too: a young woman barely into her mid-twenties who had taken the helm at the small family property, Fattoria Le Pupille. Her one advantage, apart from her own vision and determination, was the encouragement of her father-in-law, Fredi, and the consultant oenologist he had appointed, Giacomo Tachis, the man behind such wines as Sassicaia and Tignanello.

Scroll down for Joanna’s tasting notes & scores

In 1985, with Tachis supporting her in her belief in the potential of the Maremma for Bordeaux varieties, Geppetti planted a few hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Alicante (the latter subsequently replaced) in pebbly sandstone soils at 250–280 metres. The first Saffredi, the Maremma’s first Bordeaux blend, was the 1987 vintage. It made its debut two years later and was an immediate success.

The launch of the 2017 vintage at the end of last year was marked with a 30th anniversary tasting in London, hosted by Geppeti and two of her five children who work in the business, Clara and Ettore. It was a free-pour tasting of 19 vintages, starting with 1992 (the plan was 20 vintages, but one was withdrawn because two bottles were faulty – an occupational hazard). Very few bottles of the earliest vintages remain, although Geppeti revealed that there are still six bottles of 1987 in the cellar.

She touchingly described Saffredi as ‘my life companion. I’ve shared my job and my life with it. I’ve been lucky, my job has been my passion all through my life.’

The wine, an IGT Maremma Toscana, is powerful, concentrated, aromatically expressive and, as the tasting showed, long-lived. It has always been Cabernet Sauvignon-led, but the blend has evolved, earlier vintages having more Cabernet (nearly 80% in 1992). It dipped to 50% when Merlot’s star was in the ascendancy during the first decade of this century but, since 2011, under consultant Luca D’Attoma, the blend has settled at 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 10% Verdot, the latter having replaced Syrah, which in turn replaced the Alicante.

This approach seems to have brought with it more consistent quality, including finer-textured tannins that make the wine approachable early on but which still give it the structure for longevity.

Each variety is fermented separately in stainless steel. Once blended, the wine is aged for 18 months in French oak, 80% new barrels and 20% one- and two-year old.

The grapes still come from the original southwest-facing plot, together with a southeast-facing plot planted in 2006: 14 hectares in total, surrounded by woods, streams and gentle, sea-facing hills: the landscape Elisabetta Geppetti fell in love with 35 years ago.

Saffredi through the years:

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