This Defiant Mother Is Creating A Different Touch Of Tuscan Wine

Renaissance artists Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti, working on a contract signed by Niccolò Machiavelli in the year 1503—were assigned to paint opposite walls of the Hall of the Five Hundred in the Palazzo Vecchio in the Italian city of Florence. They began drafts, but never completed their works. Da Vinci’s topic was The Battle of Anghiari, a 1440 fight between Milanese and Florentine warriors (the Florentines prevailed).

Just as that battle is a quiet memory, the associated town of Anghiari is today quiet and somewhat forgotten. Yet this silent portion of Tuscany now flickers with excitement in the wine world, where unsorted old vines growing on stony red clay volcanic soils provide unusual filaments of flavor.

Anghiari sits close to the meeting of four of Italy’s 20 administrative regions. As the crow flies, the town is three miles (five kilometers) from Umbria, nine miles (14 kilometers) from Marche and 19 miles (30 kilometers) from Emilia-Romagna. It’s sort of an everywhere and nowhere land somewhere between memory and discovery. Sidling close is the Tiber River, eventually flowing through Rome.

One defiant Italian mother is now intent on establishing Anghiari as a haven for quality wines.

Paola De Blasi was born in the city of Florence to a Florentine mother and a physician father of southern Italian roots—from Salento in Puglia. She studied agricultural science and technology and wrote a thesis that won her a research grant in applying plant DNA diagnostic methods to the analysis of sterols responsible for Alzheimer’s disease.

Then geography changed her life.

Paola inherited two hectares (five acres) of wild vineyards outside the town of Anghiari—an hour and a half drive southeast of Florence.

‘The father of my grandmother planted this ground,’ she explained.

The last vines were planted on her land some 80 years ago, during an era when grapes were not grown separately according to varieties, but all together—a living basket of diversity. Paola’s old vines are optimally located. They grow at 1,500 feet (460 meters) above sea level on well ventilated terrain that is painted by diverse winds, including from the Adriatic Sea.

To date Paola has produced wine from only one vintage (2019)—and only 2,500 bottles. Beba99 refers to the nickname of her grandmother Elena Testerini, who was a year shy of a century when this wine was bottled (hence, 99). The label image was drawn by Paola’s friend and includes hands symbolizing the thousands who have worked these vineyards for decades, as well as hands of friends and neighbors who continue to help Paola realize her dream. The orange color in the label’s circle recalls the color of Anghiari soils, while the circle itself indicates a planet, because all begins with earth—into which vine roots sink to extract tenor of place.

‘From my parents I gained the dedication to carry on family roots. My mother provided family values, and my father gave me self-love in doing things, as well as commitment, dedication, tenacity and sweetness. He told me always to believe in dreams and ourselves and that each of us has great riches inside we can express.’

In addition to her own grapes, Paola’s company Podere Casaccia now purchases grapes from a neighbor.

De Blasi differentiates her wine from others in four ways. First, her grapes are grown in a region little known for viticulture—Anghiara. Second and third, her vines are both old and undifferentiated—with red varieties of Sangiovese, Canaiolo Nero, Colorino, Mammolo, Ciliegiolo and Aleatico growing all together, mixed in with whites that include Trebbiano and Malvasia Toscana. The mixing of all these berries is simply referred to as alla vecchissima maniera—‘in the old way.’ Mixed in are also grape varieties she does not recognize, although she is able to separate most (not all) whites from reds during harvest.

‘From each of these varieties comes a special smell and contribution. Beba99 is like a picture, where color and also emotion create a special moment.’

The fourth differentiator for Paola’s wine can raise eyebrows. Her terroir and vines are Tuscan, but after hand picking grapes in 35-pound (16-kilogram) baskets, she loads them into a refrigerated truck and has them hauled for almost five hours to the northernmost region of Italy—Trentino Alto Adige. There, at the foot of the impressively stark Dolomite Mountains, these grapes are vinified by enologist Andrea Moser of Cantina di Caldaro and aged at De Vescovi Ulzback—which has been producing wines for over three centuries (Moser was named as one of the top 40 under 40 year-old leaders in the wine industry this month by Fortune Italy magazine).

Why transport grapes north?

‘My wine includes Tuscan passion and tradition, but I also use the capacity of Alto Adige to create a very precise nose and to evolve aromatic complexity, using a Teutonic winemaking process. Andrea has been able to tame Tuscany by extracting the purest soul in every precise characteristic coming from the different varieties. A tailored way of working that takes care of every detail. Andreas’s precision, mixed with a pinch of healthy madness, results in genius. It makes our path unique.’

Coming from a woman who studied plant DNA, such words carry weight.

Transporting her grapes elsewhere for vinification means, by law, that it is classified as table wine, hence cannot include the vintage on the label.

Paola considers the act or blending different geographies and skill sets as analogous to diverse flavors in a great wine.

‘You taste a great fruit, then after you taste pepper, then honey. It’s the same with the winemaking process. The more different people who work together—the more the process is like a mosaic, a kaleidoscope. The intertwining of different cultures and ways to love our work as winemakers and enologists amplifies nuances and colors of the wine.

‘The intelligence of the vine is in the root,’ she explained. ‘So work in the soil must be very respectful. 2019 was a good vintage. Cool nights preserved acidity in the bunches and the ripe grapes were balanced.’

Her wine ages for 16 months in oak barrels.

This sounds fascinating, but how does Beba99 taste?

I opened a bottle of 2019 Beba99 on the porch of a wine bar in rural Bordeaux, France, then shared it with two American wine distributors who happened to be visiting that day. After two sips, one immediately offered to represent Beba99 in Chicago, and the other from New Jersey asked to learn more. Although her stocks are limited, the renowned (and Michelin starred) Pipero restaurant in Rome also orders this wine repeatedly.

Think tapestry here—threads of luminescence. Bramble, holly, cherry, wet moss and strawberry aromas; a misty forest with wild fruit along the pathway. This wine is an airy tangle of complex flavors—light as a Beaujolais, though more delicate and refined than many; fine and subtle as a Burgundy, though more ancient than some. Cherry and caramel flavors emerge like fireflies from a shaken glass—brilliant, energetic, yet light and ephemeral. This is an unvarnished and unpolished beauty, although with polished tannins.

The land surrounding Anghiari is not as yet classified for producing any Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) or DOC level of quality controlled wine. The only appellation applied there is the general one of Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) Toscana. To the west is the renowned Chianti appellation; to the south are Valdichiana and Cortona appellations.

This truth only emboldens Paola.

‘I think the terroir around Anghiari has the possibility to create a big wine with real personality. This is part of Tuscany that USA does not know. It has the traditions and the beautiful country of Tuscany, but also has aspects of the nearby Umbria region—famous, for example, for pasta with special spicy ragu sauce.’

Paola’s website describes the town of Anghiari as ‘a village suspended in time where mass viticulture has not arrived.’ This curving and walled ancient town is surrounded by sunflowers, tobacco and maize fields. It is known as a land for poets, and each year Anghiari holds a festival of autobiographers. The town is a 20-minute drive south of the birthplace of artist Michelangelo, and a 15-minute drive from Monterchi, famed for its 15^th century painting of a pregnant Mary—Madonna del Parto. The town includes a bar named ‘La Battaglia,’ (The Battle) and at the end of October and early November there is the centogusti dell’appennno of Anghiari, where farmers from all regions of the central Apennine mountains gather to showcase their products—including cured meats, distinct chocolates, pecorino sheep’s cheese, Anghiarese brustichino (toasted bread with oil, salt, garlic and sausage) and chestnuts from the Apennine village of Ponte all Piera, roasted on braziers.

Paola’s dedication to her land and craft appear thorough.

‘This vineyard kidnapped my heart,’ she admitted. ‘It has become my life, my passion. Every day that I learn more increases the fire inside of me.’

From a land renowned for a great battle now emerges a mother battling for renown of that land.

One sip—and you may understand why.