Bibi Graetz: high expectations for a vintage that may ‘shock’

Bibi Graetz has high hopes for the latest releases of Testamatta and Colore on La Place, telling db that the vintage is one that he wants to “shock” people. 

Speaking in conversation with Italian wine specialist Walter Speller at a tasting for the release last week at Berry Bros & Rudd, Graetz told the drinks business that he had high expectations of the most recent La Place release, particularly given the change that he has employed for the 2022 vintage.

The intention to sell via La Place was one that was long in planning, he said and doing so had been “an incredible journey”.

“It is an amazing experience that I think [has] really helped the brand to explore its maximum potential,” he said, notably “the possibility of having an incredible network in your hands”.

“Our passion and our work has been really brought up to the maximum level, so we are very happy with that, and this year, it’s going to be fun,” he said.

Bibi Graetz, Testamatta 2022 was released on Thursday at £696 per case of 12, a “modest reduction” of 2.0% on the 2021’s opening price  of £710 per case, Liv-ex reported, while the Colore 2022 was released at £1,800 per case of 23, around 7.1% above the release price of the 2021 vintage.

db’s Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay called the Testamatta 2022 “well made with a lovely sense of finesse and gracious fine-grained tannins”, while the Colore 2022 was “spicier and more intensely floral than Testamatta… bloodier, meatier and more substantial too with a ferrous note to its minerality”.

Growth

Since 2015, the winery had been going through an “amazing, fantastic period”, Graetz said at the tasting, notably its 2018 launch on La Place, and its growth in the US and Italy – and 2020 in particular marked a big step up.

“We have been really exploding and growing incredibly,” he said. “The fantastic thing is that by enlarging the production, we can get better, we grow our quantity, because we have more things in hand and different parcels to look at.”

The emphasis on Testamatta is on freshness, he says, as it comes from vineyards that are higher up in the mountains , while Colore has more volume and body, coming from a “dramatic vineyards of granite rocks,” giving a character of plums and apricots.

This year, however, production of the Colore and Testamatta red blends has been cut by around two thirds, as Graetz concentrated only on the north-facing slopes.

“So we are really curious to see what’s going to happen in the stylistic change,” he said. “I think there is more power in the wines, more power in the sense of volume, but also more energy more in the wine, and [it is] more expressive.

As a result, he said he was “really curious to see how fast it’s going to go” on La Place. “We have high expectations.”

The move to north-facing slopes is part of a gradual shift for greater elegance in his wines, Graetz explained. “My search for this side of elegancy brought me to look for colder terroirs and going high up in the mountain,” he explains. “I’ve been really pushing, pushing the limit.”

And there’s no doubt that 2022 was a challenging year, characterised by heat  but one that he wants to “shock” those who drink it.

“The fact that you had this heat probably give me this material that the wines that are high up in the mountain where there are windy places, north facing slopes – got this extra kick. You didn’t actually need the south slopes to get this extra kick and wow, they just really take off!”

As Speller, who moderated the tasting, pointed out, north facing vineyard that had previously not been known for high quality will “absolutely” bring in the freshness needed to give wines their elegance, particularly in the face of global warming.

Meanwhile, Graetz’s toys – the Balochi series, which were inspired by Penfolds Bin series, had proved  to be “a huge learning curve”. Testamatta and Colore had historically been blends because Graetz was buying in different parcels. “They were not my parcels, so I could not really do a single vineyard, because you cannot start building a project on something that is not yours,” he explained. It was, he admits, quite frustrating, in that “you have in the cellar 100 different parcels that are you would like to make 100 different single vineyards, because they’re so amazing when they taste them by themselves, but then they disappear into two blends,” he laughs. “So it’s kind of frustrating”.

“When you play with a single vineyard, it’s much more challenging,” he said. “They have only that thing there to play with.”

Indeed,  can a blended wine “represent terroir as precisely as a single vineyard?” Speller asks, while admitting that some of the greatest wines in the world are blended.

Graetz also released his single vineyard expressions of his ‘toys’: Balocchi No. 3 2021, (made of old-vine Colorino from the Vincigliata vineyard); Bibi Graetz Balocchi No. 7 2021, an exclusive to BBR (made from old-vine Cabernet Franc from the higher part of the Olmo vineyard in Canaiolo); Bibi Graetz Balocchi No. 8 2021, (sourced from the lower parts of the Olmo vineyard); Bibi Graetz Balocchi No. 9 2021, (made from Merlot picked from the higher part of the Olmo vineyard); and Balocchi No. 1, (Cabernet Sauvignon in the Olmo vineyard, a full 100 metres above the Canaiolo used in the Balocchi No. 8).

Ansonica – a powerful grape with potential

In addition to the red wines, Graetz also presented his white wines, Colore Bianco 2023  and Testamatta Bianco 2023, which, unlike the reds, are two whites are produced from native variety Ansonica which he has grown on the island of Giglio since 2003.

Ansonica has a completely different power, he explains – a rich, powerful grape with character that used to be used as a table grape because its hard skin made it easy to ship to the mainland.

As Speller pointed out, it has “a kind of viscosity, a waxiness, but relatively low alcohol levels, and it adapts itself very, very well to skin fermentation”, bringing out “another layer of character and personality”.

The grapes “strong character” combined with the terroir of the “undiscovered” island, which is only 10km x 3km in size but rises to 500m above sea level and comprises the same soils as Sardinia and some areas of Portugal, with granite and sand.

“Giglio is a special place, it’s a pearl,” he says. “Wherever you are on the island, you are in front of the blue and the influence of the sea is so direct, so strong – the energy, the power, when you are in the island.”

However, the 2023 vintage saw a “significant” departure from previous weather patterns, with their high temperatures and dry summers – 2023 was unusually rainy, which replenished water supplies and gave the wines excellent acidity, freshness and aromatic power – but also caused an outbreak of Peronospora (the pathogen that causes downy mildew), across parts of Italy. Some producers in Abruzzo for example, lost as much as 80% of the yield, and while the windy island means that Giglio is rarely affects, it did impact some producers there too. Graetz himself lost only around 10%, he said – and this made little impact as the weather had already resulted in larger than usual yields.

“If you have the manpower, you can go in and treat, as it is about being vigilant,” Graetz said.

The Colore Bianco comes is a single vineyard (Pietrabona), from the southern exposure, which ensure optimal ripening of the grapes, while the Testamatta Bianco comes from four different vineyards (Serrone, Radice, Scopeto and Olivello).

 

 

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