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When Bolgheri natives Cinzia Merli and Eugenio Campolmi founded Le Macchiole in 1983, the Tuscan coast was a backwater among Italian wine regions, producing mostly ros\u00e9 wines. Borrowing funds to buy about ten acres, the husband and wife team began experimenting to see what varieties worked best in their soils. \u201cI still remember the first time that I visited the property,\u201d says Cinzia. \u201cIt was an amazing expanse of grain fields and olive trees. There were just a few vineyards at the time, just as there were few wineries. Eugenio and I began with almost no resources, creating a project that is still evolving today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The initial 1989 vintage of Paleo Rosso, Le Macchiole\u2019s first label, was a blend of sangiovese and cabernets sauvignon and franc. Despite Bolgheri\u2019s growing reputation for Bordeaux-style blends, Campolmi and Merli wanted to express their terroir in single-variety wines\u2014a category not allowed under the DOC rules until 2013. This philosophy gave rise to Messorio (100% Merlot) and Scrio (100% Syrah) in 1994. By 2001 they had transitioned Paleo Rosso to a pure cabernet franc, and the wine quickly gained a cult following, triggering a cascade of cabernet franc plantings throughout the Tuscan coast.<\/p>\n
Eugenio succumbed to lung cancer in 2002 at the age of 40, leaving Cinzia to manage the winery and raise their two young sons. With her brother Massimo overseeing the vineyards, Cinzia embarked on a series of initiatives in the vineyards and the cellar to refine her approach, such as picking earlier to emphasize freshness, double sorting by hand at harvest time, reducing toast levels in the barrels and aging some wine in porcelain vessels. Cinzia\u2019s sons Elia and Mattia have joined the team, helping Le Macchiole to produce wines of exceptional elegance and transparency.<\/p>\n
In December 2025, Cinzia was elected president of the Bolgheri DOC and Bolgheri Sassicaia Consortium, which now includes 75 wineries.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][dsm_icon_list _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”-20px||||false|false” custom_margin_tablet=”-20px||||false|false” custom_margin_phone=”-20px||||false|false” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|phone” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][dsm_icon_list_child text=”Paleo Bianco Bolgheri DOC \u2013 chardonnay and sauvignon blanc” font_icon=”||fa||900″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|700|||||||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/dsm_icon_list_child][dsm_icon_list_child text=”Bolgheri Rosso DOC \u2013 merlot, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, syrah” font_icon=”||fa||900″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|700|||||||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/dsm_icon_list_child][dsm_icon_list_child text=”Paleo Rosso Toscana IGT \u2013 100% cabernet franc” font_icon=”||fa||900″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|700|||||||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/dsm_icon_list_child][dsm_icon_list_child text=”Scrio Toscana IGT \u2013 100% syrah” font_icon=”||fa||900″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|700|||||||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/dsm_icon_list_child][dsm_icon_list_child text=”Messorio Toscana IGT \u2013 100% merlot” font_icon=”||fa||900″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|700|||||||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/dsm_icon_list_child][\/dsm_icon_list][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n
FOUNDED<\/strong>: 1983<\/p>\n OWNERS<\/strong>: Cinzia Merli, Elia and Mattia Campolmi<\/p>\n WINEMAKER<\/strong>: Cinzia Merli<\/p>\n ACRES OWNED<\/strong>: 84<\/p>\n ESTATE GROWN<\/strong>: 100%<\/p>\n FARMING PRACTICE<\/strong>: Organic<\/p>\n IMPORTER<\/strong>: Vintus, NY<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][dsm_button button_one_text=”Cabernet Franc: A New Perspective on Super-Tuscan Reds (2018)” button_one_url=”https:\/\/steeplejackwine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Tuscan-Cabernet-Franc_Nov-2018_redacted-020926.pdf” button_alignment=”left” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” custom_button_one=”on” button_one_text_size=”18px” button_one_text_color=”#000000″ button_one_border_width=”0px” button_one_border_color=”#893727″ button_one_border_radius=”100px” button_one_font=”||on||||||” button_one_icon=”$||divi||400″ button_one_icon_color=”#893727″ button_one_on_hover=”off” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/dsm_button][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Bolgheri natives Cinzia Merli and Eugenio Campolmi founded Le Macchiole in 1983, the Tuscan coast was a backwater among Italian wine regions, producing mostly ros\u00e9 wines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,63,45,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bolgheri","category-le-macchiole","category-people-behind-the-wine","category-articles-toscana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steeplejackwine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steeplejackwine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steeplejackwine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steeplejackwine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steeplejackwine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/steeplejackwine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":678,"href":"https:\/\/steeplejackwine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions\/678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steeplejackwine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steeplejackwine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steeplejackwine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steeplejackwine.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}