Mazzei, Il Caggio Ipsus, 2022
Mazzei, Il Caggio Ipsus, 2022
- 75cl
- 14.5%
- Red Still
- Sangiovese
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Optimal drinking window: 2027 - 2042
Giovanni Mazzei, heir to the illustrious Marchesi Mazzei family, carries a winemaking heritage that stretches back to 1398, when his ancestor Ser Lapo Mazzei first recorded the term 'Chianti'. Another notable forebear, Filippo Mazzei, was invited by President Jefferson to bring vine cultivation to Virginia—an early chapter in the family’s remarkable global influence.
Driven by the ambition to craft a Sangiovese that could stand alongside Tuscany’s greatest wines, Giovanni set out to redefine the heights of Chianti Classico. He found his canvas in 'Il Clos', a treasured 6.5-hectare vineyard planted in Il Caggio in 2008, where ideal soils and exposure meet meticulous care.
The results speak for themselves: Ipsus has achieved consistently outstanding scores and critical acclaim. As Antonio Galloni remarked, Ipsus “very clearly [has] the potential to become one of Italy’s most important wines” - a sentiment increasingly echoed across the fine wine world.
What the critics say:
"Luscious and ripe aromas of plum and sandalwood with dried flowers and crushed stone, terracotta. Fragrant. The palate is medium-bodied with an open character. Really creamy and refined with a powdered stone mouthfeel. Dusty. Fine velvet texture and a rather endless finish. Excellent for a hot and dry growing season. It is so good it makes you want to finish the bottle, even alone. Drink or hold."
"Bright ruby red with a subtly lighter rim. On the nose, initial notes of precious wood and sealing wax; after some time in the glass, sweet spice notes, dried tomato, and ripe berry fruit emerge, with hints of red-cheeked peach and cherry. On the palate, it has a gripping attack, showing real character with compact acidity, along with tightly woven tannins that feel slightly rough on the finish. Be patient!"
The vineyards sit in the heart of Chianti Classico on a mix of galestro and alberese soils, the crumbly schist and limestone that give Sangiovese here its characteristic lift and mineral edge. Altitude and diurnal temperature swings across the growing season help preserve acidity and aromatic freshness, even as the fruit ripens fully under the Tuscan sun. This is classic hillside Chianti country, where exposure and drainage matter as much as rainfall.
Chianti Classico is the historic heartland from which the wider Chianti zone later expanded, and it operates under its own stricter DOCG rules, demanding a minimum of 80% Sangiovese and lower yields than generic Chianti. Wines from here tend to show more structure and ageing potential than their Chianti cousins, with the black rooster seal marking out membership of the original Lega del Chianti. It sits between the softer, more immediate charms of basic Chianti and the more concentrated, often single-vineyard ambitions of Gran Selezione.
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