Why it matters
The producer
When Giuseppe Cantoni walked the property at Terricciola in 1997 to decide whether to buy it, he found a vineyard he had not expected: vines planted before the turn of the twentieth century, carrying Sangiovese clones that had long since disappeared from commercial nursery catalogues. That find settled the purchase and determined everything that followed.
Fattoria Fibbiano sits in the Era Valley in Pisa province, inland Tuscany, away from the Chianti corridor. Giuseppe runs the estate and vineyards. His son Matteo handles sales. His son Nicola makes the wine. The family farms 20 hectares of vines on fossil-marine soils and grows nothing that did not already belong to Tuscany: Sangiovese in three distinct biotypes, plus Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo, Colorino for reds, and Vermentino and Colombana for whites. No Cabernet, no Merlot, no Chardonnay. That is a deliberate argument, not an oversight.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Terricciola is a small hill village in Pisa province, roughly equidistant between the Tyrrhenian coast and the Chianti hills. The Era Valley runs north to south through this part of Tuscany, and the estate sits where the valley floor meets the lower slopes of the surrounding hills. The address is labelled Toscana IGT rather than a named DOC or DOCG, which gives the estate full freedom to work with native varieties without appellation-mandated blending rules.
The distance from the Chianti heartland is not a handicap. It means the estate competes with grapes and soils that are genuinely its own, rather than fitting a regional production template built around a different hill.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The old-vine parcel covers approximately 2.5 hectares and holds the pre-1900 Sangiovese material. Yields from vines of that age are low by definition: old root systems sink deeper, fruit load is self-limiting, and bunches arrive at harvest with concentrated flavour and thicker skins. That skin contact during fermentation adds colour, tannin and grip to Ceppatella.
The remaining 17.5 hectares of younger vines, planted within the last two decades, supply the other wines. Farming across the estate follows organic practices, with only organic fertilisers applied to the surrounding land. Certification status has not been formally confirmed by an independent body in sources available for this page.
Wines to know
The range in view
Fattoria Fibbiano makes three wines that anchor the range.
Ceppatella is the red from the old-vine parcel. Sangiovese from vines over a century old, grown on the fossil-marine hilltop soil. The wine is dark and full-bodied, with firm tannin from the thick-skinned old-vine fruit, red cherry and dried herb character, an earthy mineral note that reflects the Pliocene soil beneath the roots, and enough acid line to carry it through age. Wine Enthusiast tasted the 2018 vintage blind and found a wine structured for the medium term.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Ceppatella is the right first bottle. It is a Sangiovese grown from vines planted before 1900 on fossil-marine hilltop soil, vinified on site by a winemaker who keeps the old-vine fruit separate from the rest of the range. What arrives in the glass is a wine with dark cherry, dried herb and a pronounced mineral edge, firm tannin that softens over time, and an acid line that holds everything together through a long finish. It is not a polished Chianti Classico: it is rougher at the edges in youth, more specific in its mineral character, and more interesting precisely because of that specificity.