A guide to the Maremma wine region
Italy’s wine producers love untested waters, and they adore showing off: the Maremma gives them the opportunity of a lifetime to blend the two. Although this corner of southern Tuscany may at present lack the international renown of Chianti Classico DOCG, the Maremma is becoming increasingly trendy. It has attracted some of the most respected names in Italian winemaking, who invested lavishly in the region precisely because the Maremma does not boast a historical legacy of fine wine production.
However, investors like Elisabetta Geppetti (owner of Fattoria Le Pupille) encouraged others to follow her lead and discover the potential of this remarkable landscape. When Geppetti was planting vines in the 1980s, there were a handful of winegrowers forging reputations in the Maremma. They were predominately established in the northern sub-region of Bolgheri, which now boasts its own appellation. After a period of experimentation, a Maremma Toscana DOC denomination was established and the Morellino di Scansano from southern Maremma was elevated from DOC to DOCG with the 2007 harvest.
Maremma today
Today there are approximately 300 producers cultivating vines in the Maremma, in an expansive area which runs parallel to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It swallows up the Grosseto region in southern Tuscany, extending south from the port of Livorno to the neighbouring province of Lazio.
Although the zone is subject to quality controls under the DOC and IGT regulations, winegrowers do not operate in a straitjacket. Quite the opposite, in fact. The regulations allow an unprecedented diversity of grape varieties to be cultivated in the hills alongside the Tyrrhenian coastline. There is a consensus that Bordeaux varieties are ideally suited to the Maremma’s complex terroir. Many of the best wines remain Bordeaux blends. In the top vintages, Cabernet Sauvignon reveals flavours rarely seen in Italian winemaking.
But you’ll also discover bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon blended with Syrah, or Sangiovese shaking hands with Petit Verdot. The Maremma gives considerable freedom to individuals to determine how they produce and label their wines. Local growers will often market a vintage sparkling wine alongside a refreshing rosé and oak-aged Chardonnay. No other Italian region can offer as many contrasting wine styles as the Maremma.
Maremma climate and geography
So how can the Maremma succeed at growing such a varied palate of grape varieties, producing high-quality wine from each? By being extremely large and diverse, that’s how.
The landscape is possibly the most spectacular in Tuscany. There’s hilly scrubland, dense concentrations of almost impenetrable pine forests and unspoiled beaches. The terroir, which stretches from the sea to the hills, offers a mosaic of soil types, including volcanic and calcareous outcrops. There’s loamy soils, sandstone and plenty of clay and sand. Gravel fragments lend themselves to Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot thrives on clay.
The other key factor is climatic variations. The Maremma offers an infinitely variable topography, with important differences in altitude, micro-climate and aspect. This greatly widens your grape-matching options. For example, vineyard sites close to the Tyrrhenian Sea benefit from the cooling breezes, ideal for maintaining freshness and balance in the wines. Chardonnay would mesh with such conditions. However, late-ripening varieties like Petit Verdot need heat, and plenty of it. They might prefer sites further inland, and at lower altitudes. The Maremma is rarely outfoxed by a grape variety’s needs.
Equally, it would be inaccurate to describe winegrowing in the Maremma as effortless. Wine collectors and enthusiasts are avid followers of the vintage declarations emanating from Europe’s fine wine regions, the Maremma included. When you’re investing a small fortune in a case of Chateau Lafite, you understandably want assurances that the growing season was conducive to ripening a healthy crop of top-quality grapes. It is difficult—but not impossible—to make truly exceptional wine in rain-soaked vintages.
Fortunately, growers in the Maremma seldom complain about inclement weather and rot in the vineyards. The warm Mediterranean climate of the region is a gift to winemakers; the summer is typically long and dry, although heavy rain can arrive in October. In a typical growing season, there are over 2,480 sunshine hours per year. Even accounting for the variations which flow from a surfeit of micro-climates, ripening grapes rarely pose a serious challenge.
When rainfall is scarce, the grower must ensure that the vines are planted on soils which retain moisture and the vine canopy is not overly exposed to the sun. Many of the best sites in the Maremma possess these qualities, which is why the region has enjoyed over a decade of successful harvests. A combination of the sunny climate, world-class terroir, unrivalled expertise and massive investment ensures that the Maremma rarely produces much poor wine. As elsewhere, there are a minority of lazy producers and unfortunate accidents. But overall, the Maremma is probably the most reliable source of premium wine in Italy today.
The region’s hallmark is a consistency in quality, but not in style. Oenophiles cannot get bored with an area which grows Sangiovese, Chardonnay, Merlot and Petit Verdot, often mixing them up in ways which might horrify traditionalists in France. As producers continue to refine their viticulture, we’re seeing more wines with a real sense of place. The Maremma’s terroir is fantastically varied, which makes experimentation an essentially open-ended game. Nothing can be taken for granted, except the inimitable quality of the wines.