Historia
Paolo de Marchi, proprietor and winemaker of Isole e Olena is one of the most respected winemakers, not only in Italy, but in the whole world. Considered by his peers to be the dean of Chianti, Paolo is a humble and affable man with an overflowing passion for his terroir.
The incredibly talented, humble, and kind Paolo De Marchi is at the helm of Isole e Olena, and has been since 1976 after taking over from his parents who purchased the property in the 1950s. From the beginning, Paolo has done groundbreaking work to understand and propel the image of Sangiovese. Until very recently, Sangiovese was thought to fare poorly by itself, and the Chianti Classico appellation demanded that it be blended with other grapes (including white) to earn the DOCG. Paolo differed from this opinion. He studied his Sangiovese vines, convinced he could produce a wine that would rival international single-varietal wines. Radically, Paolo produced his first 100% Sangiovese Cepparello in 1980 (according to history he was the second person to do this after Montevertine); this wine was an immediate success and set the standard for the pure Sangiovese movement in Tuscany. Cepparello put Paolo and his estate on the map. 40 years later, the revered Paolo is producing some of his best wines yet!
Paolo de Marchi was born in the village of Lessona in Piedmont, where his family had been living for centuries. In 1955, his father, a lawyer, acquired 300 hectares of land situated in the western part of Chianti Classico, just north of the village of Castellina. In fact, he purchased two adjoining hamlets, ‘Isole’ and ‘Olena’ which the De Marchi family combined to form one, hence the name ‘Isole e Olena’. The history of both estates dates back many hundreds of years, with the earliest documentation of the village of Olena in the 12th century.
De Marchi studied Agriculture at the university of Turin and went on do several harvests in California and France, an audacious and brave decision in the early 1970s.
Fired with passion and will power, the young man came back to Tuscany to work at the family wine estate. A brilliant, erudite man, Paolo simultaneously taught agriculture at the university of Turin.
De Marchi recalls that when he started to work at Isole e Olena ‘it was a mess’. His father had used subsidies from the European community to scrap antique hillside terraces and replanted almost fifty hectares with high-yielding and tractor-friendly vineyards.
Modest, however strong-minded and forward-thinking, Paolo teamed up with a small group of super Tuscan producers, aiming to boost the quality of wines. He was determined to understand the potential of Sangiovese. Even at that time, he was strongly convinced that the Chianti region could produce better wines and so he experimented.
For instance, De Marchi was the first winemaker in Chianti to use oak barrels when chestnut barrels had been the traditional vessels to age wine, for centuries. He also secretly produced the first Chianti made with red only grapes when this wasn’t permitted - white grapes had to be included in the blend.
After a decade of research, in 1996, he was finally ready to start replanting 2.5 hectares of vines, including some of his best performing Sangiovese. He continued selecting the best vines and kept on replanting. Paolo wasn’t going to stop there. He persevered and undertook the titanic project of replanting 8 kilometres of terrace walls at higher and higher densities, and with his best Sangiovese clones.
Paolo de Marchi’s enthusiasm has not faded. The man who has always been at the forefront of improving the quality of his vineyard by careful mixed clone selection, high density plantation, and training, is always questioning himself. This seventy-year-old gentleman with strong vocal opinions admits that targets are constantly moving and, with the unforeseen climate change, his attention to detail is ever greater.