Mazzei, Siepi, 2024
Mazzei, Siepi, 2024
- 75cl
- 14.5%
- Red Still
- Merlot, Sangiovese
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Drinking window: 2029 - 2045
Est. delivery in 2027
Siepi is a 50/50 blend of Merlot and Sangiovese from the Fonterutoli estate in Castellina in Chianti, first produced in 1992 as a joint project between the Mazzei family and Marchese Piero Antinori. The two grapes come from a single vineyard of the same name, and the blend is the point: Merlot gives flesh and roundness, while Sangiovese brings its characteristic acidity and structural backbone.
Siepi consistently sits in a sweet spot between power and elegance that few Super Tuscans manage. It’s always been an impressive wine, but recent vintages have reached new heights. The vines are now in their prime, and there’s an unmistakable touch of winemaking magic that’s lifted Siepi firmly into the top tier of Tuscan reds.
The Siepi vineyard sits at around 350 metres altitude in Castellina in Chianti, on south-facing slopes that maximise sun exposure while the elevation keeps temperatures in check during ripening. Soils are a mix of galestro — the crumbly, schist-like stone that gives Sangiovese its lift and mineral edge — and alberese, a harder clay-limestone that provides structure and water retention. This combination of drainage and retention is what allows the vineyard to produce grapes with real concentration even in drier years. The microclimate is warm enough for Merlot to ripen fully, yet cool enough at night to preserve the acidity that makes the blend sing.
Siepi is an IGT Toscana wine — Indicazione Geografica Tipica — which essentially means it falls outside the strict rules of Chianti Classico DOCG despite being made from grapes grown within it. The decision to use Merlot in a 50/50 blend with Sangiovese disqualifies it from the DOCG, which requires Sangiovese to dominate. Far from a demotion, the IGT designation gave producers like Mazzei the freedom in the 1980s and 1990s to make the wines they actually wanted to make, and the resulting Super Tuscans often fetch higher prices than their DOCG neighbours. It is one of Italian wine's great ironies, and Siepi is among the finest examples of it.
The 2024 growing season in Tuscany was defined by a cool, wet spring followed by a summer that never quite committed to the heat Sangiovese craves — periodic rain events through the summer kept growers watchful and selective work in the vineyard essential. Those who managed canopies well and harvested at the right moment came out ahead; those who hesitated paid for it. It was a vintage that rewarded attentiveness rather than simply good fortune, and the best producers — particularly in Chianti Classico and Montalcino — rose to that challenge.
What landed in the cellar was fresher and more lifted than the riper, more muscular style that warmer years like 2022 tend to produce. Sangiovese shows bright acidity and firm structure with real energy behind it — less about sheer density, more about definition and length. It is too early to draw firm conclusions on the very best Brunello and Riserva releases, which will need time to resolve, but the Rosso and Chianti-level wines are already drinking well and offering genuine pleasure without demanding patience.
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