Driving from Chianti Classico to Maremma is like going from the Old World to the New within a couple of hours. Chianti Classico is all villa-topped hills that hug closely to one another, as though a group of slightly formal neighbours had decided to shelter from the fog together. Maremma is open, sunny and relaxed, with bright skies and wide open fields.
Standing on a hill and looking down over the neat rows of vines and the red roof of the Val delle Rose winery, it seems hard to believe that this area was once anything other than a viticultural area. But Maremma, lying near the Mediterranean coast, was once considered Italy’s wild frontier. Once the heart of the Etruscan empire, it was largely abandoned after the fall of Rome, reverting to swampland roamed by wild horses and bandits. And mosquitoes.
Despite being drained and repopulated during Mussolini’s era, it’s taken a long time for the region to emerge again. But since the turn of this century, major producers from other regions have moved in, drawn by the opportunity to make early-drinking, moderately priced red wines with rich palates and smooth tannins, of the kind favoured by the modern consumer. Many of these are labelled as Toscana IGT, obscuring the role that Maremma fruit plays.
The Cecchi family – well known Chianti producers, who were among the earliest producers to arrive here – are, however, now making it their business to produce wines that recognise Maremma’s identity.
The taster
The Cecchi story begins with Luigi Cecchi, who was what was once known as a ‘palatist’ or ‘palate man’. A largely unknown profession in Italy at the time, Cecchi would visit wineries in Chianti Classico to taste the wines and advise on the blends. Eventually he succumbed, as so many consultants do, to the lure of using his talents for himself. In 1893 he bought a property, at Castellina in Chianti.
In the early 1900s, his son Cesare helped him develop the Cecchi label, and by 1935, Cecchi wines were appearing on tables in countries as far flung as Switzerland and Brazil.
In turn, Cesare’s son – named Luigi, for his grandfather – entered the family business in 1948. With a good head for business, Luigi was aware of the technical revolutions that were happening in wine, and applied them to his own business. “My father was a self-made man,” says the current president, fourth-generation Cesare Cecchi. “Even though he was the third generation, he was the one that changed the company from ‘a company’ to ‘a good company’.”
When Luigi took over the business, its headquarters were still located in the tiny town of Poggibonsi. “We were in the middle of the town with a small cellar,” says Cesare Cecchi, explaining that in those days it was important that the production facilities were close to a train line. “You couldn’t ship wine to Milan without the railway.”
Cesare’s mother, Anita, also came originally from Poggibonsi, from a family of barrel makers. But her family’s company was bombed out by the Germans in World War II, so the family moved everything to Siena. For a long time they retained an office in Poggibonsi, however, to which Anita would commute on her Lambretta scooter – an almost unheard of action for an Italian woman in the 1950s. But the girl on the scooter caught Luigi’s eye. Later she recalled that she “started with the barrel and ended with the wine”. Employees say that she remains the heart of the company.
The couple weren’t to stay in Poggibonsi. Luigi realised relatively early that the expanding motorways made it unnecessary to be near a train line. He purchased the 1,000- year-old Villa Cerna – once a Benedictine monastery – in the early 1960s and proceeded to both restore it, and build a cellar for winemaking and wine ageing. Over the years, Luigi made significant improvements to the vineyards, realising that an emphasis on quality production – particularly focusing on the traditional grape of Sangiovese – was going to be the key to future prosperity. Cesare says his father knew his own mind. “You could tell as soon as you got into the office that he was the boss!”
Andrea, who joined the company in 1988 and who is now the CEO, says where his father was really clever was in recognising how important appellations were going to be. “He was always looking for the relationship between the wine and the region.” For that reason, Cecchi continued to make traditional Sangiovese, even while other producers were becoming interested in international varietals.
In 1982, Cesare, now the president, joined the company and built up exports. He says that, previously, the company had exported simply because people were asking for the wine, rather than because of a considered strategy. But there used to be higher barriers in place, even within Europe. “If you travelled to Germany, Holland, England and Belgium, you had four different currencies. Just booking a hotel was a problem,” says Cesare Cecchi. “But the world was opening up.”
Today, 60% of the combined 8m-bottle production is exported to markets including the US, Japan, Germany, China and others, including tiny St Lucia; notably, Cecchi retains close ties with the Italian market and is able to sell significant volumes there, even while national consumption continues to decline.
The company headquarters remains Castellina, and as well as Villa Cerna estate, they have Castello Montauto in San Gimignano (acquired in 1989), and the Tenuta Alzatura winery in Montefalco, Umbria (2000).
“We always have plans to expand,” says Cesare. “The only problem in this business is that everything takes so long, because between when you think of the plan and when you get money from the first bottle, it’s 10 or 12 years.” He says that he wouldn’t be surprised if the next generation start producing wine in other countries. “My son is studying in Montpellier, and Geisenheim next year, and he’s a citizen of the world.”
But it was the acquisition of the Val delle Rose property in Maremma in 1996 that took them in a new direction.
A new estate
In 1994, DOC production in Chianti was cut by 20%. “My father came home and said ‘we have to buy a new estate in a new area, where we can produce lovely wines at a reasonable price’,” recalls Andrea Cecchi, adding that they decided to buy a new estate at the end of summer. Cesare Cecchi says his father used to harvest in Maremma as a boy, at the end of World War II, and he had fond memories of the Sangiovese grapes there. So the Cecchis got into their car and headed for Maremma, ultimately finding a small, 25-ha estate, near the small town of Poggio la Mozza in the production area of Morellino di Scansano. Crucially, it was close to the road and thus easy to get to, with “a nice surface to increase the capacity of production.” The Cecchis then approached the owner and “bought after 20 days”. Next came soil studies, which were so promising that the Cecchis eventually expanded their holdings to 100 ha, planting to Sangiovese, plus some Vermentino, a white grape that does particularly well, showing some anise and lemon characters. Today, Cecchi are cultivating the largest vineyard area within the Morellino di Scansano DOCG.
To show off what this area can do, Cecchi have created the flagship label La Mora, which includes a Vermentino and a Sangiovese, and which already produces 1.3m bottles; they have also created a premium wine called Coevo, a Toscana IGT wine that’s a blend of wine from Cecchi’s properties in both Chianti Classico and Maremma.
In 2009, the building of the winery began. Completed in 2013, the Val delle Rose is a regional showcase, built of white sandstone, in a style that is modern with classical proportions. Underneath is a state-of-the-art barrel hall that is protected from the heat by depth, along with a gravity-fed designer steel winery. Since 2015, there has also been a hospitality and sales area. Both brothers say that going from grape-growing to a winery has been a big project. “The Maremma 20 years ago was like Chianti 100 years ago,” says Cesare Cecchi. “It was the middle of nowhere – like mediaeval times.”
The attraction wasn’t the amenities, though, but the climate, which is Mediterranean with hot, dry summers and cool, humid winters. Locals have a long history of working with the Sangiovese grape, whose local clone is known as Morellino, giving its name to the Morellino di Scansano wines. “The grapes have a completely different character,” says Cesare Cecchi. “More fruit, lower acidity.”
The next challenge is to prove that the wines can be complex and long-lived. For Cesare Cecchi, the region of Bolgheri will be the model of how a little-known area can become well known for its fine wines.
Of course, what can really build a wine region isn’t simply its wines, but also what else is on offer. Maremma is well positioned, being only two hours’ drive from Florence and home to the Terme di Saturnia, thermal hot springs that were in use in antiquity. The region is also notable for its rustic food, particularly dishes based on the abundant wild boar population, and it’s near the coast. Other notable producers such as Zonin1821, Jacopo Biondi Santi of Brunello di Montalcino, Francesco Bolla of Bolla in Veneto, and Frescobaldi have invested in the region; many have created wine tourism offerings, including Paolo Panerai of Castellare di Castellina, who helped develop the Rocca di Frassinello estate, in partnership with Château Lafite. Another major development is the La Badiola estate, owned by Vittorio Moretti of Bellavista in Franciacorta, which has had a luxury hotel and Alain Ducasse restaurant added to the complex.
Altogether, things are quite different to when Luigi Cecchi the elder first decided to go into winemaking. Chianti Classico itself, now a DOCG, has never looked better, according to Andrea. “There are new villas, new vineyards that respect the countryside and everything looks good.” He adds, though, that he doesn’t see as many tourists as he once did, which he puts down to the region becoming more expensive to visit as it’s become more prosperous.
And the next region to rise will no doubt be Maremma.
The issue, thinks Andrea Cecchi, is whether people will help to develop the identity of Maremma, or use the region’s grapes without crediting them, but simply call the wine IGT Toscana. “But we are convinced that Maremma can be a big deal on the international markets,” he says. “Maremma Toscana is a magic name, because ‘Tuscany’ is a name known everywhere.”
