Bibi Graetz Soffocone Toscana Rosso Igt

Bibi Graetz launched his first vintage in 2000 with no formal oenology training, assembling what became the largest collection of old-vine Sangiovese parcels in Tuscany — all bottled as Toscana IGT, a conscious refusal of the DOC/DOCG hierarchy that governs his neighbours. Soffocone draws from the same mosaic of organically farmed hillside plots across Fiesole/Vincigliata, Lamole, Montefili, Olmo, and Londa that underpins the wider Graetz range. Soils are predominantly stony galestro (fractured schist) interlaced with clay — galestro's low water retention and high drainage force deep root penetration, yielding Sangiovese of pronounced mineral tension and naturally lifted acidity rather than extracted weight. Fermentation proceeds on ambient indigenous yeasts in open-top 225L French oak barriques with manual pigeage; no concentration techniques, no leaf-pulling. Aging follows the house's characteristically restrained oak regime — French oak barriques, predominantly second-to-fourth-fill — preserving fruit transparency over wood imprint. The defining transgression here is structural: sourcing from Chianti Classico-classified sites including Lamole yet bottling as a humble IGT, trading appellation prestige for blending freedom across altitude and aspect. The 2013 Tuscan vintage delivered cool-season precision, producing wines of firm acidity and fine-grained tannin that reward patience; at over a decade of age this bottle is entering its most expressive window.