Our Italy editor meets Bibi Graetz, tries his latest vintages, and learns how one wine got its naughty name

Last month, Bibi Graetz made a flying visit to the Decanter office in Paddington on his way to Norway. He had sent ahead an impressive line up of his most recent bottlings, and the few of us who were in the office on a Friday were treated to an in-depth run down of the wines from the enigmatic man himself. [subscriber-content]Since his first vintage in 2000 , Bibi's range has steadily grown and evolved. Early vintages were an ode to the predominant style of the time – concentrated and extracted – but he soon realised this wasn't for him, and the style has gradually changed. It's been a journey based on trial and error, but his wines today are more expressive and alluring than ever. [caption id="attachment_564808" align="aligncenter" width="593"] Credit: James Button/ Decanter[/caption] ‘I work very wide and let the plants go free’, says Bibi of his viticultural approach. In this way, yields are kept naturally low, and he tells us he hasn't carried out a green harvest since 2019. In the past, Bibi relied heavily on bought-in fruit and leased vineyards, however more recently he has been able to buy up more land of his own. Casamatta was originally conceived as a super-high production red to financially carry the rest of the range, hitting 500,000 bottles in its earliest configuration. But in 2018, the decision was made to support the range in a different way: by showcasing the quality potential. Numbers of Casamatta were reduced dramatically, starting in 2018, and today it's a 30,000-bottle production, akin to a second wine of Testamatta. Of Bambole , a new project, Bibi explains that he wanted to make a duo of wines that would specifically appeal to sommeliers. It also fulfils his desire to continually experiment and iterate. The white is is single-vineyard old-vine Trebbiano Toscano, a historic but unsung white variety, while the red is a partial whole-cluster Sangiovese from the same vineyard. What's in a name? Soffocone di Vincigliata comes from vines on the hill of Vincigliata, to the east of Fiesole. Bibi relates that he wanted to find a fitting name and began thinking along the lines of something ending with ‘...aia’ or ‘...one’, influenced by other high profile Tuscan reds, but realised there were so many it had become a bit clichéd. So he instead named the wine not just after the hill the vines grow on, but also what some hot-under-the-collar teenagers sometimes get up to there. The artwork doubles down on this idea! The super-limited Balocchi range is Bibi's artist's palette, or chef's pantry. The name means ‘toys’ and the idea is to make interesting wines from small plots of vines – in some instances just a couple of rows – which aren't used in his other wines. It's a project he began in 2020, when we all had a bit more time than usual, and allows him to go off-piste. Balocchi No.0, for example, is a memorable blend of Chianti's lesser known varieties, Canaiolo and Colorino, and harks back to the first ever blend of his flagship, Colore. Testamatta & Colore Bibi believes Testamatta 2023, the new release, is the best he's ever made, and I have to agree. I've tasted several verticals of Testamatta and Colore in the past, and you can see a definite change in the wines for the better at around the same time he began incorporating north-facing parcels and more of his own fruit. The 20% of fruit from Lamole in the 2023 definitely lends to the delicacy and vertical precision in the tricky vintage, and every berry counted in a year when he saw production down from an average 100,000 bottles to 32,000 bottles. Colore also uses fruit from Lamole in the blend, but Bibi saves the oldest vines for this bottling. They're around 90 years old and help give Colore its more concentrated, deep character. The 2023 is a fantastic wine, briny and saline with generous fleshiness, but for me it doesn't quite reach the heights of Testamatta this year. [caption id="attachment_564813" align="aligncenter" width="593"] Credit: James Button/ Decanter[/caption] [/subscriber-content] [breakout] Italy newsletter: Sign up today Get the best recommendations, vintage analysis, regional and cultural insights and more delivered to your inbox once a month, helping you to stay up-to-date with the latest in Italian wine.

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Our Italy editor meets Bibi Graetz, tries his latest vintages, and learns how one wine got its naughty name

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