Caprandole
Caprandole was started by Carlo Colella. After he retired, he expanded his vineyards by purchasing holdings from his nephews in 1995, establishing Caprandole. Two new vineyards were planted in 1997 and 1999. Thomas Colella, his son was with him the whole way.
In the first five years, they gradually cleaned up and revived many hectares of olive groves that had been eaten up by weeds. They planted new olive trees and converted all of the estate’s agriculture to organic. In 2002, they decided to make wine for the first time, instead of selling their fruit. From that year on, Thomas took charge of the vineyards. Their first vintage was basically a vin de garage.
In the scorching vintage of 2003, they began work on the cellar. Having a vintage bottled, they new a bit more about what they were looking for.
“As we started working on what would become our cellar, I was hosted by my cousin at Fattoria di Petreto. There I my first vintage “from grapes to wine.” I produced my first 3500 bottles of Tirle.”
In 2004, Thomas completed the cellar, and he’s been devoted to it ever since, as well as organizing and running the farm. 2003 was a hard year to begin due to the extreme climate conditions, but Thomas’ knowledge of the vineyards helped him make a great wine, and his wines have only gotten better since.
The Caprandole estate lies only a few miles from Florence in a little known valley in the ideal triangle of Firenze-Fiesole-Pontassieve. It’s a different Tuscany than neighboring Chianti.
Big ancient villas are missing, instead you’ll see their smaller ancient counterparts, the houses once inhabited by peasants and farmers. The house where the cellar is now dates back to the 12th century.
“Our hills, at 300-400 meters above sea level, are all facing south and completely surrounded by oak forests.”
Today, Caprandole is made up of four vineyards. The widest, planted in 1969 is “Caprandole” or “Vignone” is 3.5 hectares. The others are: Bocciolè, planted in 1971, at 1 hectare, Tirle, planted in 1997, at 1.5 hectares, and Campo Nuovo 1999 at 1 hectare.
Starting from Bocciolè the old vineyards have been restored. They’ve been reborn with fresh plantings. They are currently replanting the “Caprandole” vineyard and the results from all of their past efforts are an indication that replanting was the right choice.
“I’m absolutely convinced that to be true to it’s terroir, our grapes should grow with respect for nature and the environment.”
From the founding of the estate, all vineyard work has been done without herbicides, fungicides or synthetic chemicals of any kind. Fertilization has always been organic. The unique expression of natural wine at Caprandole starts with immaculate vineyard practices.
Caprandole is a totally original wine. The hills here have no winemaking tradition. So the tradition had to be forged, imagined little by little every vintage. The vineyards were registered to the Chianti consortium, but in 2003 they made a declassified wine made from Merlot from the Tirle vineyard.
“We were extremely impressed by the ripening and richness of its (Tirle) plants.”
They added a second wine over time (now known as “Il Caprandole”) made from Sangiovese. They continued experimenting changing the blend of Merlot, Sangiovese and Fogliatonda. They developed a long maceration style, which is unusual for Tuscan reds, and a long aging regiment in both stainless steel and wood. The results have created long lived wines with lots of complexity that don’t require much sulphur to stabilize and are easy to drink.
