From the atlas
Tenuta Elmata
A Norwegian family's young Bibbona estate on Tuscany's Livorno coast, growing Sangiovese alongside Bordeaux varieties and Vermentino on a property that reached certified organic status in 2025.
At A Glance
| |
| Region | Tuscany (Toscana IGT) |
| Location | Bibbona, province of Livorno |
| Main grapes | Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Vermentino, Sauvignon Blanc |
| Signature wine | Nippi |
| Defining feature | Norwegian-founded estate, organically certified from summer 2025, three hectares in production with substantial new plantings underway |
The Producer
Bibbona sits close to the Tyrrhenian coast in Livorno province, a corner of Tuscany better known for olive groves and beach towns than for wine estates. Tenuta Elmata arrived here in 2020, when the Paus family registered the estate in September of that year, formalising a project that had begun three years earlier with the purchase of a villa. The property now holds about ten hectares in total, with three hectares already producing and a further two and a half hectares planted during 2024 and 2025.
The estate runs three wines: Nippi, a Sangiovese-led Toscana Rosso; La Ribelle, a white from Sauvignon Blanc; and Elmata, a red built from the Bordeaux varieties on the property. Organic certification, under the Italian Biologico classification, arrived in summer 2025.
Place
Bibbona lies in the Livorno province on Tuscany's western coast, where proximity to the sea shapes the growing season. The coastal position brings a consistent breeze off the water, which moderates summer temperatures and keeps humidity in check during ripening. For Sangiovese, that maritime influence extends the window between flowering and harvest, allowing the grape to build acidity alongside its fruit.
The Nippi plot sits two kilometres from the estate villa, close to Bibbona's old mill. Two other plots, Colombaia and La Ribelle, face the sea directly and receive a stronger breeze, conditions that suit the Sauvignon Blanc planted on La Ribelle.
Story
Ellen Marie Blakstad Paus and William Paus bought their Bibbona villa in 2017, more than two years before they formally established the agricultural company in September 2020. The gap between those two dates covers the additional land purchases of 2020 and 2021 and the decisions about which grapes to plant and where. Rather than concentrating the estate around a single variety, the family laid out a mixed planting: Sangiovese and the three Bordeaux red varieties on the older producing parcels, Sauvignon Blanc on the sea-facing La Ribelle plot, and Vermentino among the newer vines.
The Nippi vineyard brought the only vines with age. Slightly more than one hectare there dates from ten to fifteen years ago; the surrounding three hectares were planted during 2024 and 2025. Working with that older block gave the estate its first vintage, in 2022, before the bulk of the property had begun producing.
Vineyards And Cellar
The estate's roughly ten hectares divide between an established producing block and substantial new plantings. The Nippi plot, around four and a half hectares in total, holds the oldest vines on the property, just over one hectare aged between ten and fifteen years, alongside the newer rows installed in 2024 and 2025. Colombaia was planted in spring 2021 and was expected to produce its first fruit in 2023. La Ribelle, neighbour to Colombaia and planted with Sauvignon Blanc, faces the sea and catches the coastal breeze.
Grapes for Nippi are picked by hand, with a pre-selection pass in the vineyard before the fruit reaches the cellar. Fermentation runs in stainless steel tanks for three months. After that, the Sangiovese portion spends seven months in concrete tanks, while the Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc rest for seven months in second-use French oak barriques. The separation keeps the Bordeaux varieties from pushing too much new wood flavour into the final blend; the second-use barrels contribute some oxygen and a mild spice without overwhelming Sangiovese's natural fruit.
Wines
Nippi is the estate's central red, a Toscana Rosso with Sangiovese accounting for 85 percent of the blend from the 2023 vintage onward, with five percent each of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. The inaugural 2022 release used a Sangiovese-dominant blend with an unspecified proportion of other local grapes; the 2023 vintage fixed the formula at four named varieties. The wine is bottled as Toscana IGT, using the broad regional designation rather than a sub-zone name, which gives the estate flexibility with its mixed planting.
La Ribelle is the estate's white, made from Sauvignon Blanc grown on the sea-facing plot. Elmata is the full-bodied red from the Bordeaux varieties on the property. Together the three wines cover the main plantings: Sangiovese at the centre, the Bordeaux reds contributing to both Nippi's minority share and the Elmata blend, and Sauvignon Blanc standing alone in La Ribelle.
In The Glass
Nippi opens with light red berries, stone fruit, and dried fruit on the nose, with mushroom, forest floor, and herb notes adding a savoury undertone. On the palate it runs fresh and light-to-medium in body, with red berry fruit, dried fig, a hint of vanilla from the oak-aged component, and a spice note on the long finish. Acidity is lively, tannin moderate, and the overall weight stays on the lighter side of medium. The concrete ageing for the Sangiovese portion keeps the wine clean and fruit-forward, while the seven months the Bordeaux varieties spend in second-use barriques contribute texture and a mild spiced finish without adding obvious wood.
Elmata, built from Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc, fills the fuller end of the range.
A Bottle To Understand It
Nippi draws on the oldest vines on the property, just over a hectare aged ten to fifteen years at the Nippi plot two kilometres from the villa, and it carries the split élevage that defines the estate's cellar approach: Sangiovese in concrete to preserve fruit freshness, the Bordeaux minority in second-use barriques for depth. Nippi is a light-to-medium Tuscan red with red berry fruit, dried fig, lively acidity, and a savoury herb note that comes through on the finish. From the 2023 vintage onward, at 85 percent Sangiovese with five percent each of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot, it reads as Sangiovese-led Tuscan red with the Bordeaux varieties contributing the mild spice and texture of the barriques.
Anecdote
When the Paus family bottled their first Nippi in 2022, the wine came from a single hectare of vines they had not planted themselves. The older block at the Nippi site predated the family's arrival in Bibbona by a decade or more; the vines had already established their root systems in ground the estate was still learning. That 2022 vintage blended Sangiovese with an unspecified portion of other local grapes. By the 2023 vintage, the family had fixed the formula: 85 percent Sangiovese, with five percent each of the Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc they had planted on the property themselves. The shift from inherited grapes and improvised percentages to a documented four-variety blend marked the moment the estate's own plantings entered the bottle.
Final Word
Tenuta Elmata is a young coastal Tuscan estate finding its formula through the contrast between inherited Sangiovese vines and newly planted Bordeaux varieties. Nippi is where that contrast first resolved into a documented blend.
Sources
- https://www.tenutaelmata.com/history
- https://www.tenutaelmata.com/family
- https://www.tenutaelmata.com/vineyards
- https://www.tenutaelmata.com/wines
- https://www.vinmonopolet.no/Land/Italia/Toscana/Tenuta-Elmata-Nippi/p/16464201