Giovanni Mazzei unveils ‘electric’ Ipsus 2018

The producer unveiled the 2018 vintage of the all-Sangiovese Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Ipsus, due to be released in late September this year.

Although he is involved with a number of wineries, including Prosecco producer Villa Marcello, Il Caggio estate is home for Mazzei. Pointing to the label on the 2018, he says: “That’s my house, there!”

While Mazzei is the latest steward of a 600 year old Tuscan winemaking dynasty, Ipsus is somewhat more recent. The first vintage, coming from the estate’s six hectares under vine (most of which was planted in the 1990s), was 2006. It was not until the 2015 vintage that an Ipsus was commercially released.

Mazzei told db: “I want something that’s always very vibrant with a good level of primary fruit and that flowery character, I want it to be crunchy and exciting.”

This pursuit for an “electric” wine (as Mazzei describes it) has resulted in ongoing experimentation with regards to the winemaking. The 2015 was tonneaux-aged for 24 months and then for a further eight in cement, while the 2016 changed the proportion of new oak from 100 percent to 70 percent.

As for the 2018, it spent 22 months in tonneaux and 15 hectolitre barrels followed by eight months in ceramic and then 14 months in bottle. The decision to switch to ceramic was taken by Mazzei to “keep more energy” in the wine. “We don’t have a recipe!”, he jokes.

For Mazzei, what he pursues in the wine is also evolving: “2016 was a beautiful year: sunny mornings, no fog, not a cloud. That was the vintage when I saw a vision…The 2018, for me, is a starting point, where the soul and character match together…It has the soft tannins and is very approachable like the 2015, but with the aromatics of the 2016.”

Mazzei hopes to “slowly” step up production: 2,400 bottles of the 2015 were produced, approximately 4,000 of the 2018, and he hopes for the number to reach 6,000 for future vintages. Though yields were relatively low last year, he was still “happy” with the quality of the fruit: “…we didn’t have frosts, we didn’t have hail.”

As for the current drought emergency in Northern Italy, Mazzei is not too concerned at the moment: “The vineyard’s still very green…We don’t irrigate because we never thought we would need it! But we have to make the most of the rain we get, maybe by reducing competition from grass in the vineyard.”