The story of Poggio Argentiera began in 1997 when Gianpaolo Paglia, an agronomist and scientific researcher from Maremma, and his wife Justine Keeling, an English marketing manager, bought Podere Adua, a prestigious estate in front of Marina di Alberese, in the province of Grosseto. It was a plot of 6 hectares of vineyards, 5-6 kilometers from the sea, created at the beginning of ‘900, the time of the drainage of those lands, on the border with the Natural Park of Maremma. Gianpaolo and Justine, who had started to produce immediately the famous Maremma wine Morellino di Scansano docg, took little to get the first successes and so, as early as 2001, after the construction of the new wine cellar, they expanded the estate with the purchase of additional land in the Tuscan hinterland, 30 kilometers from the sea, in the municipality of Scansano, Podere Keeling, at about 200 meters above sea level.
While Podere Adua produced more solar, generous and Mediterranean wines, also because of the sea breeze and the mild climate throughout the year, in the Podere Keeling the cooler climate and the poorer and stonier soil allowed the production of more refined and elegant ones. This approach, in addition to the choice of organic regime since 2009, has remained unchanged to this day, despite in 2015 the winery was purchased by the Tua Rita group, with the 23-year-old Giovanni Frascolla (Rita Tua’s nephew) firmly placed, in the 2020, in command of the estate.
Among the wines produced by the first owners and, unfortunately, currently out of production, it is worth mentioning Bucce, a 100% Ansonica obtained from the vineyards of Podere Adua. This wine owes its name to the production method that provided, after a manual harvest in boxes of 20 kilograms, a vinification with maceration on the skins for about a week, at controlled temperature. After 6 months of aging, partly in cement and partly in tonneaux, the wine, bottled without filtration, was ready for marketing.
The 2012 vintage, although it is not a wine conceived for aging, shows a golden yellow opalescent color with some light amber nuances, and a range of hints that open on notes of yellow peach, dry hay, candied citron peel and kumquat, followed by conference pear, hawthorn, acacia honey and iodine, with concluding echoes of Sherry Fino and hydrocarbons. The mouthfeel is surprising because of the contrast between softness and acidity that is enriched, with the passing of the seconds, by a salty vein and a slight tannic sensation (due to maceration on the skins); all while retro-olfactory returns the fruit, the iodine and the Sherry that accompany the sip until a discreet length closing.
Rating: 88/100
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