Italy · Bolgheri & Etruscan Coast

Le Macchiole

Single-variety red specialist in Bolgheri; the estate that gave Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Syrah their own bottles when the region was still writing its blending rules.

The producer

Eugenio Campolmi planted Cabernet Franc and Syrah in Bolgheri before the region had decided what it wanted to be. In 1983, he and Cinzia Merli left the family business and bought four hectares on Via Bolgherese near Contessine, on the Tuscan coast south of Livorno. The first commercial bottling came in 1987. By 1989 Paleo Rosso had debuted as a Bordeaux-style blend, and within a few years the estate had committed it to Cabernet Franc alone. Three single-variety reds now carry the estate: Messorio from Merlot, Scrio from Syrah, Paleo Rosso from Cabernet Franc. All three are IGT Toscana, because Le Macchiole's insistence on single-variety bottles places them outside the Bolgheri DOC's blending requirements. The label says Toscana; the wine is entirely Bolgheri.

Eugenio died in July 2002, aged forty. Cinzia assumed leadership that same year and converted the estate to organic farming. From 2010, biodynamic methods have been incorporated alongside the organic work. The cellar has moved in the same direction: shorter, gentler extraction and a reduced new-oak imprint in the élevage, so the grape and the parcel carry more of the wine's character. The Bolgheri DOC consortium reports that the estate now farms 34 hectares, and Cinzia works with her sons Elia and Mattia.

Known for

Paleo Rosso (100% Cabernet Franc), Messorio (100% Merlot), Scrio (100% Syrah), all IGT Toscana

Notable facts

The story

The Corten Frames of Bolgheri

In 2012, Cinzia Merli proposed auctioning forty-eight six-litre bottles of the 2004 Messorio, one of the most discussed Bolgheri reds of that decade. The wine had built a reputation through the early 2000s, and the estate used that reputation as a fundraising instrument. The proceeds paid for large Corten-steel sculptural frames, set at viewpoints across the hillsides around Castagneto Carducci and Bolgheri, marking landscapes tied to the poet Giosuè Carducci, whose name has attached to the commune since 1879 and whose most famous poem names the hamlet of Bolgheri directly. Forty-eight bottles of Merlot funded a public art commission in the village where the estate keeps its address. The Corten frames are still standing in the landscape.

From the atlas

Le Macchiole

At A Glance

Estate: Le Macchiole Location: Bolgheri, Castagneto Carducci, Tuscany Grapes: Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Syrah Key wines: Paleo Rosso (IGT Toscana), Messorio (IGT Toscana), Scrio (IGT Toscana) Farming: Organic since 2002; biodynamic practices from 2010

The Producer

Eugenio Campolmi planted Cabernet Franc and Syrah in Bolgheri before the region had decided what it wanted to be. In 1983, he and Cinzia Merli left the family business and bought four hectares on Via Bolgherese near Contessine, on the Tuscan coast south of Livorno. Bolgheri was beginning to attract attention for its Cabernet Sauvignon-led blends, but Eugenio was already thinking about single varieties.

The first commercial bottling came in 1987. Paleo Rosso debuted two years later as a Bordeaux-style blend before the estate committed it to Cabernet Franc alone. Three single-variety reds now form the spine of everything Le Macchiole does: Messorio from Merlot, Scrio from Syrah, and Paleo Rosso from Cabernet Franc. All three are sold as IGT Toscana, a classification that carries no geographic restriction beyond the region, because Le Macchiole's insistence on single-variety bottlings places them outside the Bolgheri DOC's blending requirements for red wines. The label says Toscana, but the wine is entirely Bolgheri.

Cinzia now runs the estate with her sons Elia and Mattia. The Bolgheri DOC consortium puts the current holding at 34 hectares.

Place

Bolgheri is a DOC on the Tyrrhenian coast of Tuscany, running inland from the sea toward the hills of the Maremma. The appellation sits within the commune of Castagneto Carducci, a hill town whose name honors the poet Giosuè Carducci, who spent his childhood in the area and made it famous in Italian literature.

The Bolgheri DOC builds its red wines around blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc, with minimum and maximum proportions that favour the Bordeaux varieties. An estate bottling 100% Merlot or 100% Cabernet Franc cannot use the Bolgheri DOC red designation; it becomes IGT Toscana instead. For Le Macchiole, three of its four main wines carry a broader regional label, not the appellation name. The trade-off is deliberate: the estate judges that each variety earns its own bottle, and a blend dilutes what the grape and the site are saying separately.

The vineyards occupy both valley-floor and hillside positions. From 2020, Scrio draws its fruit from a hillside site, a shift the estate made to change the character of the wine.

Soil And Site

The packet does not supply detailed soil surveys for Le Macchiole's parcels. What the farming record shows is that the estate has treated its vineyards as distinct pieces since at least 2002: organic conversion followed by a decade-long move toward biodynamic methods, and a vinification approach that runs at least 45 separate fermentations in a single vintage. That level of parcel separation implies that the estate has identified meaningful differences between plots, even if the composition of those plots is not publicly documented. The distinction between the valley-floor parcels that supplied Scrio before 2020 and the hillside site adopted afterward points to elevation and aspect as active variables in fruit character.

Story

Eugenio Campolmi died on 14 July 2002, aged forty. He had spent nineteen years building Le Macchiole from four hectares into one of Bolgheri's defining addresses, planting varieties and vinifying bottles that the region's DOC did not have a category for. Cinzia assumed leadership that same year and converted the estate to organic farming. The two decisions, one forced and one chosen, arrived together.

From 2010, the estate began incorporating biodynamic methods alongside the organic work. The farming change moved slowly; the cellar change moved in parallel. Over the following decade, Le Macchiole pulled back on extraction weight and reduced the proportion of new oak in the élevage. The three flagship reds still spend 20 months in French barriques, but 75% new oak is a number the estate has been quietly working against, favoring gentler handling that allows the fruit to carry more of the wine's character.

Elia and Mattia joined Cinzia, and the estate's range settled into its current form: a Bolgheri Rosso DOC at entry level and three single-variety IGTs above it, each grape in its own bottle.

Vineyards And Cellar

The estate runs at least 45 separate fermentations in a vintage. Each parcel goes through the cellar on its own schedule, and the decisions made at harvest, pressing, and fermentation reflect the individual plot rather than a house style imposed across the range.

Fermentation happens in stainless-steel and cement vats. Stainless steel holds temperature precisely and preserves primary fruit; cement adds a slight texture without oak character. Neither vessel adds flavour, which leaves the grape and the harvest doing the work through fermentation.

The three flagship reds then go to French barriques for 20 months, 75% of which are new. New barriques add vanilla, toast, and tannin to wine; at 75% new, the oak presence is significant. The cellar has been working to soften that equation, using shorter and gentler extraction to keep the tannin frame from the grape rather than from the wood, and moderating the new-oak saturation so the wines carry more forward fruit and less of the weight that heavy élevage can produce.

Wines

The range has four main wines. Bolgheri Rosso is the entry-level DOC red, a blend that sits within the appellation's requirements and offers access to the estate's farming and cellar work at a lower price.

Above it, three IGT Toscana reds each carry a single grape. Paleo Rosso is 100% Cabernet Franc, the variety Eugenio planted early and which the estate eventually separated from its original Bordeaux-style blend. On the palate, the 2021 shows red fruit and blood orange, with coffee-derived notes, licorice, and exotic spice building behind them. The texture intensifies through the mid-palate, and the tannins are dense and assertive, finishing with some astringency. It is a firm, aromatic red that reads differently from the Cabernet Sauvignon-dominated blends the region is better known for.

Messorio is 100% Merlot, the wine that drew international attention to Le Macchiole through the late 1990s and early 2000s. It is full-bodied with the density and weight that Bolgheri Merlot can achieve at its richest. The 2020 vintage used both barrique and a small proportion of stoneware amphora in the élevage, a vessel that adds oxygen contact without wood character.

Scrio is 100% Syrah. From the 2020 vintage, the fruit comes from a hillside site rather than the valley floor, and critic notes on that vintage describe dark fruit, savory character, fresh acidity, and firm tannins with capacity to develop.

In The Glass

The three IGT reds share a common architecture: parcel-sourced fruit, stainless steel or cement fermentation, and 20 months in barriques. What separates them is the grape.

Paleo Rosso opens with red fruit, blood orange, coffee, licorice, and a spiced aromatic lift that Cabernet Franc typically produces in warm-climate sites. In the mouth, the texture builds progressively, and the tannin is firm, dry, and present on the finish. The astringency is not a fault; it is the signature of the grape handled without softening.

Messorio is broader and denser. Merlot in Bolgheri tends toward full body, and the 2020 carries the structural weight appropriate for a wine that has historically aged well. The amphora element in the 2020 élevage adds a faint mineral note beneath the fruit.

Scrio, from 2020 drawing on the hillside parcel, reads darker and more savory than either of its siblings. The fresh acidity cuts through the fruit and keeps the palate from sitting heavy, and the tannins are firm enough that the wine clearly needs time.

All three reward patience. The cellar's move toward gentler extraction means the current vintages carry more primary fruit than earlier releases, but the underlying tannin frames remain substantial.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Paleo Rosso. It is 100% Cabernet Franc from Bolgheri, aged 20 months in French barriques, and it is the wine that most directly demonstrates what Le Macchiole was arguing when Eugenio first planted the variety. The aromas are identifiably Franc: red fruit, citrus edge, some spice, a faint herbal note underneath. In the mouth, the tannins are firm and the finish carries that slight dryness that Cabernet Franc holds when it is grown in warmth and handled without over-extraction. It is not a soft wine, and it is not trying to be. Buy it young and open it with food, or set it aside for four or five years and see what the acidity and tannin frame does with time.

Anecdote

In 2012, Cinzia Merli proposed auctioning forty-eight six-litre bottles of the 2004 Messorio, one of the most discussed Bolgheri reds of that decade. The 2004 had built a reputation; the estate used it as a fundraising instrument. The proceeds paid for large Corten-steel sculptural frames, set at viewpoints across the hillsides around Castagneto Carducci and Bolgheri, marking landscapes tied to Giosuè Carducci. Carducci's name has attached to the commune since 1879, and the hamlet of Bolgheri appears in his most famous poem. Forty-eight bottles of Merlot funded a public art commission in the village where the estate keeps its address. The Corten frames are still standing in the landscape.

Final Word

Le Macchiole built its case for single-variety reds from Bolgheri before the region had a DOC category for them. The three flagship bottles, each carrying one grape and an IGT Toscana label, remain the clearest statement of that position. The farming has deepened over two decades, the cellar has moved toward lighter handling, and Cinzia, Elia, and Mattia continue the work Eugenio began on four hectares in 1983. Paleo Rosso is where to start; Messorio and Scrio are where the conversation goes next.

Sources

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