Iacopo Paolucci

Iacopo is not quiet. He is thoughtful.

"There are a lot Americans here now. They bought the castles, and they come up the road to taste my wines".He was studying me."Should we go taste?"He motioned toward the cellar. He had sized me up as a typical American.

"No I would prefer to go walk with you in your vineyards first."Iacopo paused and stared me in the eye. Had I over-stepped?"No one has ever asked me to go see my vineyards before."...He smiled. 

As we walked, his story unfolded. Iacopo Paolucci is a local. Born and raised in Spoletto, he spent his high school years in Todi. His mother was a teacher and his father worked for an electrical company. How he found his way into agricultural and wine, he doesn't know, but he did and he has embraced it. His early enthusiasm for farming flowed into grape growing and then into wine. Most of his early internship work was done in Montefalco cellars. He pursued this interest and went to wine school in Perugia and it was here that a professor recommended he finish his schooling while working at Antinori. His final thesis was written on Italian white wines and the effects of barrique barrel ageing. For Iacopo, this was a chance to work with a winery that was making wine at scale, and a chance to see and do everything he did not want to do. Todi was calling...

"At Antinori, everything was conventional and at the time my idea for my own project was just a dream. I wanted to use another approach in the vineyard. I wanted a sustainable, natural company. Even in the cellar. There have been companies that have inspired me above all for the level of quality they have achieved, especially Bea. Others in Umbria, at those levels, I don't have as points of reference. I don't even have French reference points because I'm Italian and I want to make an Italian wine. That's why I bet a lot on the native vines of the area." 

The amphitheater hill that now holds his vineyard was just land back then, but Iacopo had an eye on it. It is a high point in the valley facing north/northeast. Its soils are a calcaire-clay-marl layered over volcanic bedrock. Iacopo has one helper here and there, but he largely works alone. Aside from a 30 year old vine block of Grechetto di Todi, he planted his vines in 2008. His first bottlings were in 2015. From the beginning, his principles were: work with heirloom varieties, farm organically, and make wines that he wants to make- don't copy anyone.

"In the area where I am there are uncontaminated places and I have found old varieties. If you go to the fields and the woods and with some advice from some elderly gentleman you will find them. I found the grape Grero in a small town called Ramazzano..."

I already knew I had to have him in the portfolio with that glass in Perugia, so...

The visit and the tasting were a confirmation. I was there to size him up. Was this guy for real, or did he just get lucky with that one wine? What were his principles, what was he working on and trying to achieve? And most importantly, was he good? Did all of the wines have something to say? 

We tasted outside standing around a picnic table. It was chilly and quiet and slow. Each wine was simply fantastic; each stood alone with its own conversation and quality in the glass, and simultaneously there was a thru line of richness and power and grace- not driving acidity- but like a floating ethereal quality- an air- in all of the wines that clearly spoke to Iacopo's vision and hand. I signed him right then and there.

Overall, Iacopo's story is of an artist deeply in touch with his land and his home, and of an artist with a want to execute that vision thru wine. He is not trying to make Bea. He is not trying to make wines like Antinori or the French. Over these past couple of weeks, we have pestered him about mentors and influences and muses. There are no specific ones for him. He is singular, which is something very rare in art and craftsmanship, his wines are not like others; they are distinctively is own. Perhaps that is because he has had to figure this all out on his own. Perhaps that is because he is very thoughtful and very clear about what he likes and what he does not like. 

That day, I drove home bursting with excitement.My clients!They need these wines. They need to know about Iacopo! (Iacopo had already become a one name guy in my head.)...And then, I doubted. Maybe I was wrong. Was I simply just enthralled to sign a new producer? I stopped in to a lovely trattoria in Spello for lunch. Everything was bespoke and local and beautiful, and there on the shelf were Iacopo's wines. And as I proceeded through the next few days, in the best restaurants in Perugia, there they were again.

No, I was right, we have the guy in Umbria.