Why it matters
The producer
In 1972, seventeen smallholding families in the Maremma hills of southern Tuscany pooled their parcels and founded a cooperative around a single grape: Sangiovese, grown in the territory that would eventually carry the name Morellino di Scansano. Each family worked around four hectares. The founding ambition was not volume but quality, a posture that ran against most of what the Italian wine market was rewarding at the time.
Fifty years on, the cooperative has grown to 170 member growers farming approximately 700 hectares, and it now produces five million bottles a year. That output represents roughly one bottle in five of total Morellino di Scansano DOCG production, making this the largest single contributor to the appellation. It remains a growers' cooperative, not a private negociant house, and the founding mission to offer wines that represent the Maremma territory and its traditions at honest prices has stayed in place.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Morellino di Scansano is the DOCG appellation covering Sangiovese grown in the hills around Scansano, a village set inland from the Tyrrhenian coast in the Grosseto province of southern Tuscany. The Maremma was for much of the twentieth century one of Tuscany's least regarded wine zones: too warm, too flat in the lower reaches, and more associated with agriculture than fine wine. The hills around Scansano changed that argument. Elevation brings cooler nights, and proximity to the sea moderates summer heat, giving Sangiovese the temperature variation it needs to hold freshness without losing ripeness.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The Roggiano Biologico carries certified organic fruit from member growers, which affects what arrives in the cellar: grapes farmed without synthetic inputs tend to show more aromatic definition, and the Biologico's nose of cherry, raspberry and roses has the kind of clarity that comes from careful fruit rather than corrective winemaking.
The Riserva line receives oak ageing, with the wood fully integrated by the time the wine reaches the market. Integration matters here because it is the difference between tasting oak and tasting wine that has spent time in oak. The Riserva drinks well on release and continues to develop over five or more years, which puts it in a different category from the cooperative's early-drinking labels.
Wines to know
The range in view
The cooperative produces three distinct labels, each positioned at a different level of the Sangiovese hierarchy in this territory.
Cala Civetta Sangiovese di Toscana IGT is the entry wine: 90 percent Sangiovese, 10 percent Alicante, vinified for early drinking. The colour is clear ruby. The nose opens on tart dried cherry and a thread of liquid smoke, with a faint chalkiness that comes through on the finish alongside soft tannins. It is light enough to drink in the first year or two from vintage and direct enough to work without food context.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the Roggiano Biologico Morellino di Scansano DOCG. It carries certified organic fruit, the full DOCG appellation weight, and a palate that shows what Sangiovese grown on these Maremma hills actually tastes like without oak complication in the way. The nose is expressive without being showy: cherry, raspberry, roses. The palate is velvety, fruit-clear and fresh, with morello cherry and hibiscus at the centre and juicy acidity keeping the finish lively. It is the wine that most directly answers what Morellino di Scansano is: medium-bodied red Sangiovese, coastal Tuscany, aromatic, clean and honest.