Iacopo Paolucci
Who: Iacopo Paolucci
Where: Monte Castello di Vibio (Perugia), Umbria, Italy
What: Grechetto di Todi DOC, Grechetto Frizzante dell’Umbria IGT, Umbria Bianco IGT, Umbria Rosso IGT.
Total size: SMALL
The Wines
Grechetto di Todi DOC “Iacopone” 2020
Umbria Bianco IGT “Il Ponziano” 2022
Grechetto Frizzante dell’Umbria IGT “Il Furioso” 2020
Umbria Rosso IGT “Il Roscialesco” 2019
Umbria Rosso IGT “Nero Jacopone” 2020
A man. His Hill. Two cats. Some olive and apple trees. Vines.
It was Friday, Jan 6, 2023, the day of the Festa della Befana, and Valeria and her cousin Manu took me on a tour of Perugia. No one in the wine business goes to Perugia, at least I had never heard of anyone in the wine business going to Perugia. Lunch would be at a nice traditional restaurant where we could all have torta al testo- the most traditional Umbrian dish. As we walked through the alleyways of the 2000+ year old city, I found myself shocked. Perugia is magnificent. It is such an important city for Italy- a cultural beacon for art, history, and food. Our restaurant was Osteria ai Priori. They were serving rabbit. Their list was extensive and packed with Umbrian wines I had never heard of before. I paroused the by-the-glass list and saw varieties I knew, until I saw Grero. I had never had a Grero before; I'll take that.
After twenty years in the wine business, I have sadly reached a place where the enthusiastic joy of wine discovery doesn't happen that often. I am working to not become a wine cynic. But every once in awhile a true wine discovery comes along and I can feel that joy overwhelm me. That is what happened at ai Priori. I was tattooed, even now I can clearly see the entire moment. I remember the rabbit dish, my friends, the three ladies to my left at the other table that kept staring at us. I know the table we sat at and exactly where I was sitting. I can still taste the texture and fresh red fruit and balance of the Grero now, as I write this...I had to know who made this wine.
Labels matter in wine discoveries and Iacopo Paolucci has done a magnificent job with his. His Grero "Nero" bottling simply looks bad ass. I took photos of the front and back label. That night, still smitten with my discovery, I google'd him, and there he was. I emailed him...by chance, can I come see you tomorrow (shot in the dark but anyways), or if not, can we have samples shipped? He replied right away- yes tomorrow works.
The next day, I drove out to Doglio from Spello. The final kilometers saw me asking myself where the hell I was, as I climbed switchback roads thru a forested valley, eventually ascending up to the highest point in Doglio- a small hamlet that sits across from Todi. I arrived before Iacopo. There was music on in the cellar and I was greeted by two cats, but no one was there. Then, Iacopo arrived.
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.
