Made with Cabernet Franc, the 2019 Ampeleia gives us a unique view onto a grape variety that we are seeing with increasingly successful results along the coast of Tuscany. In this case, you get punchy (macerated) fruit flavors of candied blueberry and cherry and lots of vertical lift from a producer who always offers interesting winemaking interpretations in wines from Tuscany and in the far north of Italy under the Elisabetta Foradori brand. The wine winds down slowly with lingering notes of cigar ash, smoke and tar.

A biodynamic and organic wine, the Ampeleia 2018 Ampeleia is all Cabernet Franc from a vineyard site that extends up to 600 meters in elevation. It gets cool mountain nights and the warm sunny days of the Tuscan coast. The alcohol content is a contained 12.5%, which is a small miracle in its own right, especially for a part of the peninsula where fruit ripens quickly. This is a unique growing site. The wine opens to a medium-dark color with macerated aromas of dark cola, cherry cola and crushed peppercorn.

The organic 2017 Ampeleia is a pure expression of Cabernet Franc with fruit selected from across various parcels planted at a cool 500 to 600 meters above sea level. The wine sees 15 days of fermentation on the skins in large oak casks. This 17,000-bottle production opens to a dark color and concentration, showing pretty aromas of pressed rose, tart cherry, dried apricot and tilled soil. Like the other wines from Ampeleia, this expression shows a lasting sense of inner elegance that transcends the heat and drought of the 2017 vintage.

The 2016 Ampeleia is an organic expression of Cabernet Franc made with 10% whole-cluster fruit and fermented in a combination of large oak casks and cement. Fruit is drawn from a high-altitude site with calcareous clay soils, representing the best of Roccatederighi (the town where this winery is located). This vintage reveals sharpness and focus with cherry, wild berry and cassis. At the back, it offers distinctive notes of licorice, tar and crushed stone. The aromas fall together with exceptional precision. This is a production of 20,000 bottles.

My favorite wine from Ampeleia this year is the 2011 Ampeleia. Cabernet Franc is blended with Sangiovese and other grapes to produce this rich and eccentric red wine. The bouquet opens to dark fruit, tobacco and pressed berry fruit. There is a distant touch of pungency and some unexpected bitterness in the mouth. You also feel the heat of the 2011 vintage in the plump darkness and general textural richness of the blend.