In Tuscany, high on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, you find the vineyards of Tenuta Sette Cieli.
“Above us only Sky,” it says on their website.
The vines sit at 1300 feet above sea level, overlooking the Bolgheri region, so famous for Super Tuscan wines. As they look north, they can see the famous Sassicaia vineyard of Tenuta San Guido on the next hilltop, where the first Super Tuscan was grown.
But this estate did not begin as a vineyard.
The Ratti Family and the history of Tenuta Sette Cieli
The Ratti family lived in the Milano Como area. Antonio Ratti is renowned for textile design. His vision wove art and culture. In 1995, he created the Antonio Ratti Textile Center at the MET in New York, devoted to the conservation and study of textiles.
His daughter, Erika, purchased this beautiful 160-acre property in 1994 to breed horses.
The land was isolated on this hilltop with the ruins of a house from the 1200s. They built a home here and found that the property had an incredible potential for wine.
Erika passed away in 2006 before they had a chance to sell any wine. Her son, Ambrogio, took over the property in 2012 and hired Elena Pozzolini as director and winemaker. She oversees the product from ground to glass.
While they sit just outside the Bolgheri region, they are higher in altitude. It was remote and risky, but the soil and microclimate were good. They began with 14 acres and now have a total of 56 acres.
The vineyards are terraced and surrounded by lush forests protected here in Tuscany. Their isolation means there is no cross-contamination from any other vineyards.
The altitude and the microclimate allow them to grow the Bordeaux varieties with elegance. During the day, the temperature at this high altitude is lower, and the calcareous clay in the soil retains humidity. This is helpful because they don’t have any water, and summers are dry. The coolness here preserves acidity and gives the wines aromatic complexity.
Director and Winemaker Elena Pozzolini
“To make great wine, you need great soil, great climate, and then you need great people.”
Elena Pozzolini
Elena spent time working in vineyards and wineries in Australia, Argentina, California, and Tuscany. Here, she fell in love with the place. She is deeply in tune with the vineyard. Each year has a new challenge: “You must have the sensibility to give every single parcel what they need at that specific moment.”
We were sent media samples of these wines to taste and were invited to an online Webinar where Ambrosio and Elena spoke to us of the wines and the vineyard, thanks to Studio Cru.
All opinions are our own.
It was a pleasure to hear Elena speak of the vines she nurtures and the wines she creates as we celebrate the history she creates during this Women’s History Month.
The wines of Tenuta Sette Cieli
They are growing Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Malbec. They planted Sangiovese on the very top of the hill in 2016 to make a single variety wine. They have just 2 barrels, which have not yet been released.
The wines here are simple but focused and precise.
Elena chooses when to pick, not through analysis, which, she says, just gives you numbers. She can taste when the berries are in balance, and that is when they pick.
We tasted 2 of their wines, the 2019 Indaco & the 2019 Scipio
Elena tells us that 2019 was a great vintage. Winter was inconsistent; April and May were rainy, June was very hot and dry, and there were rain events in July.
By harvest time in September, the temperature was back to normal, and the vines ripened without stress with low daytime temperatures, which helped to retain the freshness in the wine.
Elena mentioned that the white floral and spicy notes in these wines come from the calcareous soil.
Tenuta Sette Cieli 2019 Indaco
The Indaco is a blend of 1/3 each, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
Malbec, Elena reminds us, was part of the original Bordeaux blends. She became quite familiar with this variety while working in Argentina. But here, Malbec is not quite the same. She found the aromas during punch-down different from the Malbec she knew. Here, the aromas were fresh, elegant, and floral due to the cooler climate. The wine keeps the violet aromatics.
Each year, they put 2 cuvées of Malbec away so they can see how it ages.
In this blend, each variety and each parcel are kept separate and blended after 1 year of aging. The 2019 was in barrel for 14 months in a mixture of 35-40% new French Oak.
The name comes from the colors at sunset. From the top of the hill, facing the sea and the island of Corsica, everything becomes deep shades of blue: the sea, the mountains. I find this name compelling, given the family’s history in textiles. When I think of indigo, I think of rich blue dyed fabric.
They produce about 25,000 bottles of this wine annually. It is 14.5% abv and retails for around $75
Tenuta Sette Cieli 2019 Scipio
The Scipio is 100% Cabernet Franc.
Elena tells us that this variety is sensitive at harvest. Too hot, and you lose the elegance. Too cold, and you extract too much in the way of pyrazines (those green notes). In this way, climate change has had a positive impact on their vineyard. Ripening Cabernet Franc fully used to be impossible at this altitude. When they started the vineyard, they would make a 100% Cab Franc maybe once every 3 years, as they couldn’t ripen it enough. Now, they can make at least a small bunch of bottles every vintage.
They do not move this variety during fermentation, managing the cap without stressing about extraction. They let it relax in the tank, macerating for 30-35 days. They press it, and it goes directly into barrels.
This wine is 14.5% abv and retails for around $129.
Long-lived wines
While most wineries are releasing their 2021 vintage right now, Tenuta Sette Cieli is releasing their 2019. These wines from the top of the hill on calcareous clay have high acidity when young, which makes them tight and closed, so they hold them, aging them in a bottle before release.
These wines are expected to evolve over the next 15 years.
Are these Super Tuscans? They are made from International Varieties in the region and the soils that gave birth to Super Tuscans. These wines are elegant and bold without being brash. If this is where Super Tuscans are moving, I will follow.
What to pair?
Pappardelle with a Sausage Eggplant Ragu
This simple and delicious ragu was beautiful with both wines, but it was exceptional with the Indaco.
More on Tenuta Sette Cieli
For more on the wines of Tenuta Sette Cieli visit their website
https://www.settecieli.com/en/
You can find them in the US Distributed by Wilson Daniels
Pappardelle with Sausage Eggplant Ragu
This delicious ragu is perfect with Pappardelle and a wine from Tuscany. We suggest a Super Tuscan of the elegant variety, like this 2019 Indaco from Tenuta Sette Cieli - The Estate of Seven Skies.
Ingredients
- ½ sweet yellow onion diced
- 1 medium eggplant diced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb sweet Italian sausage
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- ½ cup red wine
- 2 ½ cups of crushed tomatoes
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 8.8 oz package of Pappardelle noodles
- Parmigiano Reggiano for serving
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Cook ½ onion and 1 medium eggplant until soft, 8-10 minutes.
- Remove and increase the heat to medium-high.
- Cook sausage and garlic for about 5 minutes, until cooked through.
- Return the eggplant and onion mixture to the pan.
- Add ½ cup of wine, and cook until reduced by half.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, dried oregano, cinnamon, and pepper.
- Simmer for 30 minutes, salt to taste.
- Cook pappardelle according to instructions on the package.
- Toss the ragu with the pappardelle, top with parmesan, and serve.
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 389Total Fat 13gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 58mgSodium 648mgCarbohydrates 47gFiber 5gSugar 9gProtein 21g
Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.
Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine and WSET 3 Certified. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.
When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.
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