Poderi San Lazzaro
he Marche region is one of Italy’s best kept secrets. Bucolically peaceful and apparently timeless, the thriving Marchigiana agriculture and careful environmental husbandry have not marred this pristine landscape. This is a terrain adorned with medieval walled towns, castles and monasteries. Mostly hilly and mountainous, the gently rolling, clay soil supplies a small but increasingly excellent range of wines deserving more visibility than it currently enjoys. The Marche has been ignored by generations of wine lovers as a region that only produces a simple white wine, in a fish-shaped bottled, called Verdicchio. Like so many forgotten Italian wine regions, however, the Marche is making a strong comeback, with many small producers emerging to make some excellent wines, both red and white. This area has a historical predilection to red grape varietals and the San Lazzaro vineyards are, in fact, rich with such native varietals as Sangiovese and Montepulciano. The new experimental varietals in their vineyards are grapes such as Sangiovese Grosso and Pecorino which have shown exciting results and soon will be available in beautiful finished wines.
Poderi San Lazzaro was founded in 2003 by Paolo Capriotti and Pino Ottavi with a mission to continue their families centuries old tradition of wine making and embrace modern wine-making techniques in the vineyard and the cellar in order to make high quality wines.
The vineyards and the winery are located at 950 feet above sea level, 9 miles from the Adriatic and 15 miles from the Apennines mountain range. The small and efficient winery is housed in a century old farmhouse sitting on top of a hill with sweeping views of the Adriatic and of the Apennines.
The vineyards face south, southwest and northwest on predominantly clayey soil. The vines range in age from 10-15 years for the Polesio and Podere 72 and 40 years for the Grifola. The estate includes two adjacent farms for a total of 45 acres, of which 8 acres are olive groves and forestland. From the 37 acres of vineyards are produced 30.000 bottles of wine.
Paolo Capriotti, vineyard manager and winemaker is one of the emerging winemakers in the fast evolving Italian wine scene. At 41 years of age, Paolo already has 14 years of experience behind him, working with his father, Lorenzo, in shaping their vineyards into the finest and most innovative estates in the Marche region. |
