Tasting Notes
100% Cabernet Franc Classic, leafy, cassis, excellent concentration. Fine, with good acidity. Will age well. Most people would prefer this to Masetto, Ornellaia's trophy wine, which is £1000 a bottle. 900 cases made. I drank the 2019s with winemaker Elena Pozzloini at Medlar Restaurant in November 2023. They are beauties. Both are getting more refined as the new vineyards mature and as Elena Pozzolini adapts to how she raises them (elevage) in the cellar. This is the wine that a famous winemaker said to Elena it reminds him of Cheval Blanc. It's released only in the best years and is produced in tiny quantities.
More Info
Scipio is named after the famous Roman military general who defeated Hannibal in the second Punic War. Sette Cieli arrived on the Tuscan scene a few years after the boundary lines of the Bolgheri appellation had been drawn. At the time the boundary was set, no one thought someone would plant above the woods on the next hillside over from Sassicaia, but actually above Gaja's Bolgheri property, Ca' Marcanda. But they did. Originally intended as a place to breed horses and a family retreat. Wine-loving friends came to visit and pointed out Sassicaia’s original vineyard, under the castle, that you see when you look over your right shoulder, and then a bit to the left of that, the Masseto vineyard. So they started to plant vines in 2000, and since 2012, the young Ambrogio Cremona Ratti who inherited the domain has been at the helm. He brought in winemaker Elena Pozzolini who came back to the area after several years of international experience in Argentina and California, and they share some of the viticultural team of Ornellaia. As Matthew Jukes says "this estate is a superstar in the making."