✒ Isole e Olena 2026 New Releases
by John Stimpfig
Doppo on fashionable Dean Street, in London’s Soho, is definitely one of The Wine Conversation’s favourite restaurants. So when an invitation came to taste the latest releases from one of our favourite wine producers (Isole e Olena), there was a long discussion with Sarah about who would represent TWC. In the end, I lucked out and it was a pleasure to sample such carefully chosen dishes with a selection of Isole e Olena’s current and older vintages.
As Wine Conversation readers will no doubt know, the estate has been under relatively new ownership since Christophe Descours’ EPI Group purchased it in 2022 from the inimitable Paolo de Marchi whose family had owned it since 1956.
Situated near to Poggio in the western section of the Chianti Classico area, Isole e Olena’s first vintage was in 1969 and today, the estate produces a small but stunning range of terroir-infused wines, with its flagship Cepparello leading the way. Happily, there has been little alteration in the style or ambition of the property under EPI, whose portfolio also includes such lustrous names as Biondi-Santi and Heidsieck Champagne.
Today, this beautiful, bucolic estate, encircled by woodland, is run by the equally engaging and talented Technical Director, Emanuele Reolon, who took over the reins in August 2023. Reolon has the great good fortune to be backed by strong investment from EPI and to work with world-class consultants such as Alberto Antonini and Pedro Parra. A new winery is also in progress and will soon be completed that will connect to the old cellars and barrel room. Here are the wines that Emanuele brought on his visit to London.
Wine Notes:-
Isole e Olena Chardonnay 2024
The vines for this deliciously Burgundian-styled Chardonnay are situated on the north eastern side of the estate at between 350-400m, where the soil is a mix of limestone and marly clay slates. The 2024 vintage began with a mild winter and a rainy spring, followed by a cool, wet summer. Despite it being a difficult and labour-intensive year in the vineyard, the harvested grapes had great freshness and aromatic complexity. Vinification involved the must being fermented in small barrels (25% new) and then a long maturation on the fine lees with some stirring. Just 20% of the wine went through the malolactic.
An enticing nose of butter, cream and minerals, the palate is dry, savoury, and fresh with intense notes of preserved lemon, butterscotch, minerals and almond, followed by a deep saline finish. This is balanced, ripe and textured offering considerable pleasure now and many years to come.
14.0%
Drink: 2026 - 2040+
Bottle Price: £105.00
Isole e Olena Chardonnay 2016
In contrast to the vagaries of the weather in 2024, 2016 was a much easier year in the vineyard. It began with a mild winter and good rainfall up to the end of May. Thereafter, temperatures warmed up during the dry summer with cool nights locking in acidity. The wine underwent a similar vinification to the 2024, except that the malolactic fermentation was 100%.
Impressively, the 2016 shows surprisingly little evolution ten years into its life. There is some bottle age, but the aromas and flavours remain proudly primary with bright citrus, and lemon sherbet to the fore with butter, toast and minerals in support. Also Burgundian in style with stunningly integrated oak, this is perhaps a bit more gourmandise and textured than the 24. However, there’s no shortage of acidity, balance or depth. This alluring wine is drinking quite beautifully now and will do so for another few years.
ABV: 14%
Drink: 2026 - 2031+
Bottle Price: N/A
Isole e Olena Chianti Classico 2023
Here the vineyards are in San Donato’s Poggio area, also quite high between 300 and 480m and on a mixture of limestone, clay, slate, marls and sandstone. The vines face south to southwest, with many up to 50 years in age.
2023 was by no means an easy vintage with a wet spring followed by a warm dry summer, with occasional bouts of rain. September, however, was exceptionally good, and when the harvest rolled round, the grapes were perfectly ripe with good acidity.
A blend of 90% Sangiovese and 10% Canaiolo, this is a delicious Chianti Classico full of joie de vivre, complexity and drinkability. Bright in the glass, it has fine aromatics and considerable appeal on the palate, where sweet cherry, damson and pure red fruits are to the fore with a whiff of woodsmoke. The mouthfeel is supple and elegant with nothing overdone or out of place. Again, the oak ageing is barely noticeable, and I was also surprised to see that it registers 14.5% alcohol thanks to its innate freshness, balance and fine tannins.
ABV: 14.5%
Drink: 2026 - 2045+
Bottle Price: £37.00
Isole e Olena Cepparello 2023
First produced in 1980 by Paolo de Marchi, Isole e Olena’s flagship ‘Super Tuscan’ Cepparello is invariably made from a strict selection of 100% Sangiovese grapes, all picked from the property’s best sites and exposures, mostly with well-drained galestro and limestone soils.
Once picked, the grapes are fermented in conic French oak casks before ageing for 18 months in a mixture of barriques, tonneaux and large oak vessels prior to bottling. It then has another year in bottle.
Intense, bright ruby colour in the glass with lifted aromatics of rosemary and red cherry. The palate is full of beautifully defined fruits and flavours comprising sweet red cherry, blueberry and cocoa powder with a hint of tobacco and rosemary. Again, purity and balance are at the core of this wine with exceptional tensile freshness alongside supremely elegant supple tannins. Unlike the long and attenuated finish, one barely feels or notices the 15% alcohol, such is the balance of this exceptional wine. This could be broached now with pleasure. But I would keep it a few years yet and enjoy it over the next twenty to thirty years or more.
ABV: 14%
Drink: 2026 - 2045+
Bottle Price: £140.00
Isole e Olena Cepparello 2016
2016 was, unquestionably a great and cool-ish vintage for Cepparello with good rainfall and ideal temperatures during the summer as warm, dry days contrasted with cool, acid-inducing nights. Rainfall in the middle of September helped refresh the grapes. As is customary, Cepparallo is fermented in conical oak casks and later aged for 18 months in 95% French and 5% American oak casks of varying sizes, of which only one-third is new wood.
There are so many impressive features to the 2016 Cepparello that it’s difficult to know where to start. First is the colour and fragrant aromatic precision on the nose. It’s as though the wine has barely shifted in the last decade. Rosemary, tobacco and ripe red and blue black fruits (red morello cherry and cassis) dominate the elegant and refined palate. The acidity has an electric charge to it and the ripe, silky-succulent tannins provide perfect balance and cushioning. It’s also immaculately structured and contoured with layers of complexity and long, powerful savoury-coffee infused finish. Outstanding now, this will age and improve with grace and charm.
ABV: 15%
Drink: 2026 - 2050+
Bottle price: £185.00
Isole e Olena Vin Santo 2011
And to finish, a perfect bottle of one of my favourite Vin Santos. This Isole e Olena dessert wine is made from Malvasia and Trebbiano grapes (between 25 and 43 years of age) at around 400m altitude with a south-southwestern exposure. Once picked the grapes are dried on straw mats for three months and are then gently pressed prior to a slow and careful fermentation, followed by ageing for eleven years in a mix of small ‘caratelli’ barrels.
This is exquisitely rich, fresh, lively and complex with stunning sweetness, balance and texture. Deep burnished gold colour with aromas and flavours to match, this exudes unctuous, complex notes of coffee, rum, raisin, honey, vanilla and more. Although super sweet, it is not remotely cloying thanks to its fine spine of acidity and everlasting length. Utterly glorious.
ABV: 14.5%
Drink: 2026 - 2060+
Bottle Price: £69.99
John Stimpfig reports on the latest releases from Isole e Olena, one of the great estates of Tuscany.