Ceppaiolo is barely a winery at all. It is a sliver of old vines, a stone shed, and a single antique press, run as a personal laboratory by one of Italy's most influential natural winemakers.
Backstory
The full name is Piccolo Podere del Ceppaiolo. The name nods to the poorest figure in the old village, the man left to heat his home with the discarded roots of trees. Winemakers Danilo Marcucci and Riccardo Pennaforti took on the tiny plot after discovering it held vines around 70 years old, among the oldest in the area.
The Region & Vineyards
The site sits on a quiet plain in Umbria, watched over by the Apennines. It is minute, well under a hectare, with old Trebbiano and other field-blend vines. Marcucci grew up in Umbria watching his grandfather make traditional farmer's wine, and he treats Ceppaiolo as the purest expression of that lineage.
Winemaking
Marcucci is widely called the "Yoda of natural wine" in Italy, advising roughly ten small, hyper-natural producers across the country. At Ceppaiolo he answers to no one. The cellar holds original 1950s equipment, including an old vertical press that is the only technology used. Fermentations are spontaneous, with no synthetic products, no added sulfur and no manipulation. He never makes the same wine twice; he tastes the grapes each harvest and decides on the spot what to make.
The Wines
Bottlings shift from year to year and carry names built off the estate, among them CeppaBianco, CeppaRosso, CeppaRu and Ceppanat. They are experimental by design, raw and honest, made the way Marcucci says he comes here to work: alone, and his own way.
