Italy · Chianti Hills

Podere Poggio Scalette

Family estate on Ruffoli hill in Greve in Chianti, growing Sangiovese on high-altitude Macigno sandstone. The Chianti Classico is fermented and aged entirely in cement, unoaked. Il Carbonaione comes from vines first planted in the decade after the First World War.

The producer

Podere Poggio Scalette sits on Ruffoli hill in the Greve in Chianti commune, one of the higher corners of the Chianti Classico zone in central Tuscany. Vittorio Fiore and his wife Adriana Assjè di Marcorà founded the estate in 1991, buying land and a farmhouse on the hill. For the first five years the property had no dedicated cellar. In 1996 the adjoining parcel came available, complete with working cellars, and the full production model fell into place. The estate now covers 40 hectares, 15 in Sangiovese vines, 10 in olive groves. Son Jurij, trained at the School of Viticulture and Oenology in Beaune, runs day-to-day farming and winemaking; son Alessandro handles export markets; Vittorio keeps overall oversight.

The wines are built around what Ruffoli gives and nothing more. The Chianti Classico is 100% Sangiovese di Lamole, fermented and aged in cement throughout, unoaked, full-bodied, with sour cherry, black cherry, iron and abundant acidity held by tannins that grip without roughening. Il Carbonaione comes from a single parcel of Sangiovese first planted in the decade after the First World War, aged 14 months in 350-litre French oak tonneaux. High altitude, sandstone soil and west and south exposure give both wines a taut, mineral frame that oak softening would dissolve.

Known for

Old-vine Sangiovese on Macigno sandstone, unoaked Chianti Classico, single-vineyard Il Carbonaione

Notable facts

The story

The Vines That Outlasted Everything

When Vittorio Fiore began farming the Ruffoli parcels after 1991, he knew he had old Sangiovese in the Il Carbonaione plot. What he did not know was how old. Research into the estate's history established that the vines there had been first planted in the decade following the First World War, before Chianti Classico existed as a regulated appellation, before the Consorzio had drawn any boundaries at all. A family that arrived in 1991 to make modern Chianti Classico found themselves farming Sangiovese roots that had come through two world wars, the wholesale reshaping of Italian wine law, and the long arc of the Tuscan wine renaissance. Those vines are still on the hill, still producing Il Carbonaione, and the fruit still carries the concentration and iron edge that sandstone and exceptional age combine to give.

From the atlas

Podere Poggio Scalette

At A Glance

Estate: Podere Poggio Scalette Country: Italy Region: Tuscany Appellation: Chianti Classico Village / Hill: Ruffoli, Greve in Chianti commune Key Grape: Sangiovese Vineyards: 15 hectares Founded: 1991 Current Management: Jurij Fiore (winemaking and farming), Vittorio Fiore (overall supervision), Alessandro Fiore (export)

The Producer

Podere Poggio Scalette sits on Ruffoli hill in the Greve in Chianti commune, one of the southernmost and highest-altitude corners of the Chianti Classico zone in central Tuscany. Vittorio Fiore and his wife Adriana Assjè di Marcorà founded the estate in 1991, buying land and a farmhouse on the hill. They had nothing purpose-built: no cellars, no working space beyond the farmhouse itself. Five years later they acquired the adjoining property, which came with functional cellars, and the full production model clicked into place.

The estate now covers 40 hectares: 15 in Sangiovese vines, 10 in olive groves. Jurij, Vittorio's son and a graduate of the School of Viticulture and Oenology in Beaune, Burgundy, runs the day-to-day farming and winemaking. Alessandro, the other son, handles export markets. Vittorio keeps overall oversight. Three family members, three defined roles.

The wines that come off Ruffoli are not built for oak softening. They are built around Sangiovese's natural acidity and tannin on a hill that pushes both hard: high altitude, sandstone soil, west and south exposure where the breeze keeps temperatures from collapsing into ripeness.

Place

Ruffoli hill falls within the Greve in Chianti commune, the northernmost of the major Chianti Classico communes, and sits at elevations where the diurnal temperature shift keeps Sangiovese firm long into the growing season. The vineyards face west and south at high, breezy altitudes, which delays full ripeness and holds the natural acidity the appellation's Sangiovese is known for.

The soil is Macigno, a local sandstone formation. Sandstone drains quickly, limits vine vigour, and produces grapes with concentrated colour and a mineral, iron-edged character. It is a leaner growing environment than the galestro and alberese clay-limestone soils found elsewhere in Chianti Classico. The combination of altitude, exposure and sandstone gives the estate's wines a tighter, more saline frame than many Chianti Classico estates on lower ground.

The appellation label, Chianti Classico, places the estate inside the historic production zone between Florence and Siena, governed by the Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico. Sangiovese is the primary grape; the Chianti Classico and Il Carbonaione bottlings are 100% Sangiovese.

Soil And Site

Macigno sandstone covers the Ruffoli hill parcels reviewed by Decanter. Sandstone does not retain water well, and vines in lean sandstone soils tend to produce smaller berries with thicker skins. Both factors concentrate flavour and increase tannin relative to clay-based soils. At altitude, where night temperatures fall sharply, that tannin stays angular rather than dissolving into soft, glycerol-heavy texture.

The Il Carbonaione parcel sits within this broader sandstone setting, and its Sangiovese vines trace their planting to the decade after the First World War. Old vines on lean soil produce small crops with deep colour and concentrated fruit.

Story

In 1991, Vittorio Fiore founded an estate on Ruffoli hill and built it around Sangiovese without oak, with the wines sold under a single-estate label. Founding the estate required acquiring land piecemeal, and for the first five years the property had no dedicated cellar. In 1996 the adjacent parcel came available. It had working cellars attached. Vittorio bought it, the estate doubled, and production became physically possible at the scale Vittorio had planned.

What the family did not initially know was the age of the vines in the Il Carbonaione parcel. Research established that the Sangiovese there had been first planted in the decade following the First World War, making those vines among the oldest on the estate when Vittorio arrived in 1991. Old vines on sandstone produce less fruit per vine and more concentrated wine per bottle. That discovery shaped how the estate was organised: Il Carbonaione was aged in 350-litre French oak tonneaux; the Chianti Classico became the cement-fermented, cement-aged entry into the estate's character.

Jurij joined after training at Beaune, bringing a Burgundian frame of reference to what is an Italian farming operation. The crossover shows in the cellar: micro-parcel attention, a preference for letting Sangiovese speak without heavy extraction, and cement over large new oak for the entry wine.

Vineyards And Cellar

The 15 hectares of Sangiovese vine on Ruffoli face west and south on Macigno sandstone. The high altitude slows ripening and keeps acidity elevated; the sandstone encourages small, concentrated grapes. Both factors point the winemaking in one direction: preserve what the hill gives, add as little as possible in the cellar.

For the Chianti Classico, use cement throughout. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentation both happen in cement tanks. The wine spends ten months in cement after fermentation, then at least three months in bottle before release. No oak contact at any stage. This is a wine where every aromatic and textural character comes from grape and site: no vanilla or spice overlay from barrel, no tannin softened by new wood.

Il Carbonaione goes into 350-litre French oak tonneaux for 14 months. The tonneaux size is significant: larger than a standard 225-litre barrique, slower in oxygen transfer, less likely to leave a dominant oak imprint on a wine already carrying firm tannin from old sandstone-grown Sangiovese.

Wines

The estate's range runs from Chianti Classico at entry level through to Il Carbonaione as a single-vineyard bottling. Five further wines, Capogatto, Piantonaia, Chiara, Aurora and Richiari, complete the list.

Poggio Scalette Chianti Classico is 100% Sangiovese, specifically identified as Sangiovese di Lamole, a clone associated with the Lamole valley in Greve in Chianti. Fermented and aged in cement, unoaked. Full-bodied with sour cherry and black cherry fruit, pomegranate, iron, abundant acidity and tannin that grips without roughening. The crisp finish is the signature of cement-only élevage on a sandstone hill: no woody softening, no barrel sweetness, just Sangiovese in its direct, mineral form.

Il Carbonaione is Sangiovese from a single parcel of post-First World War vines. Fourteen months in 350-litre French oak tonneaux. The wine sits in a different weight category from the Chianti Classico: more concentrated fruit, more structural depth, greater ageing potential. The 2018 vintage placed 30th in James Suckling's Top 100 Wines of Italy 2021.

In The Glass

Poggio Scalette Sangiovese starts on the nose with sour cherry, black cherry and pomegranate, then adds an iron and mineral thread that comes from the sandstone. The cement-fermented Chianti Classico carries those aromas clean and undisturbed because there is no oak character to compete with them.

In the mouth the acidity is the first thing. It is abundant, not lean, and it gives the wine its frame: the fruit sits above it, the tannin runs alongside it, and the finish holds both long after the wine is swallowed. The tannins grip, which is characteristic of Sangiovese at altitude on sandstone, but they do not roughen or dry the palate. The finish is crisp, mineral and clean.

Il Carbonaione adds concentration and weight. The 14-month tonneaux ageing integrates without erasing: the oak is present as body and texture rather than as flavour. The old vines deliver more fruit density than the Chianti Classico, and the wine has the structural depth to develop further in bottle.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Poggio Scalette Chianti Classico. It is 100% Sangiovese di Lamole, fermented and aged entirely in cement, unoaked, from west and south-facing parcels on Macigno sandstone at high altitude in Greve in Chianti. The wine costs less than Il Carbonaione and presents Sangiovese, sandstone, altitude and no oak in one bottle: Sangiovese, sandstone, altitude, no oak. Sour cherry, iron, abundant acidity, tannins that are firm rather than rough, and a clean mineral finish. Nothing is added in the cellar to smooth the hill's edges. Drink it alongside food that can take acidity, a Florentine bistecca, braised wild boar, aged pecorino, and it becomes clear why Vittorio Fiore chose this hill and this approach in 1991.

Anecdote

When Vittorio Fiore began farming the Ruffoli parcels after 1991, he knew he had old vines in the Il Carbonaione plot. What he did not know was how old. Research into the estate's history established that the Sangiovese there had been first planted in the decade following the First World War, before Chianti Classico existed as a regulated appellation, before the Consorzio had drawn any boundaries. A family that arrived in 1991 to make modern Chianti Classico discovered they were farming Sangiovese roots that had survived two world wars, the reshaping of Italian wine law, and the whole arc of the Tuscan wine renaissance. The vines are still there, still producing Il Carbonaione, and the fruit still carries the iron and concentration that sandstone and great age combine to give.

Final Word

Poggio Scalette is a family estate that chose altitude, sandstone and cement when much of Tuscany was choosing lower ground, international grapes and new French oak. The Chianti Classico is the argument in its clearest form: pure Sangiovese, no oak, mineral and taut from the hill. Il Carbonaione is the same argument with more age and weight behind it. Start with the Chianti Classico. Move to Il Carbonaione when the hill makes sense.

Sources

Open Podere Poggio Scalette in the interactive map →