Tuscany
Est. 1977 
7 wines 
Tastings
Tours
Booking required 
Wine area
Bolgheri and the Tyrrhenian Coast
The cypress-lined coast between Castagneto Carducci and Suvereto where Italy first bottled Bordeaux blends.
Grattamacco
Grattamacco is one of Bolgheri's founding estates, farmed on the high hills between Castagneto Carducci and the sea. It was the second winery to bet on this now-famous corner of coastal Tuscany, and the first ever to bottle a Bolgheri Rosso. Piermario Meletti Cavallari bought the farm in 1977 and planted Sangiovese, Bordeaux grapes and Vermentino. Since 2002 it has belonged to Claudio Tipa's ColleMassari group. Its flagship red still simply carries the estate's name. Visitors can book a tour and tasting, or a retrospective of historic vintages.
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Wines from Grattamacco
About Grattamacco
The name tells you about the ground. Macco is the local word for the hard sandstone and limestone that iron smelters threw aside, stone the Etruscans and Romans used to build roads. The vines grow on white, stony clay and bands of pale marl, poor ground that gives small crops and long-lived wines.
Piermario Meletti Cavallari bought the farm in 1977. He was a wine lover and a close friend of the critic Luigi Veronelli. He pulled up the orchards and planted vines instead: Sangiovese, Bordeaux grapes, and Vermentino, which nobody had planted on these hills before. He was the second entrepreneur to believe in Bolgheri, after Sassicaia's Marquis Incisa della Rocchetta. In 1994 Grattamacco became the first winery to bottle a Bolgheri Rosso. That same year the zone's pioneers gathered under the estate's oak tree for a now-famous photograph.
The entrepreneur Claudio Tipa bought Grattamacco in 2002 and folded it into his ColleMassari group, which also owns Poggio di Sotto in Montalcino. From 1998 it pushed into Casavecchia, a stretch of high hills ringed by woods. From 2004 it planted Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc as free-standing bush vines, the first in the area to try it. The group's farming and winemaking here are certified under the ISO 14001 environmental standard.
The cellar keeps things bare. Grapes ferment with their own yeasts in open wooden vats with no temperature control, punched down by hand, then age in small French oak barrels. The range is short. Grattamacco itself is a Bolgheri Superiore, the white Grattamacco Bianco is a Bolgheri Vermentino, and there is a Bolgheri Rosso. L'Alberello, the bush-vine red, is now bottled as Toscana IGT. Visitors can book a tour and tasting, or a retrospective that pours four historic vintages beside the current one.
Plate I · TUSCANY
Grattamacco on the Tuscany wine atlas
Winery
Grattamacco
Castagneto Carducci, LI · Bolgheri and the Tyrrhenian Coast
Denominations Produced
Grapes Used
Visit & Experiences
2 bookable experiences at Grattamacco
2 tastings, checked by our editors.
Hosted by the estate2 available
Tasting & Tour
Estate tour and tasting
A tour from the main terrace facing the vineyards, then the winery and its winemaking stages, ending with a tasting of Bolgheri Rosso, L'Alberello and the Grattamacco Bolgheri Superiore.
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on grattamacco.it
Tasting
Grattamacco Retrospective
A vertical tasting of four historic vintages of the Bolgheri Superiore poured beside the current release, built around the wine's longevity.
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on grattamacco.it
Tours that visit GrattamaccoRun by a tour operator. The estate is one stop of several. Booking completes on the platform that runs the tour.
Private Wine Tour to Bolgheri with Expert Sommelier - 2 Wineries
Grattamacco · stop 2 of 3 · 90 min
9 hours
From €250 per person
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Loc. Lungagnano 128, 57022 Castagneto Carducci, Livorno (Toscana)
What Grattamacco makes
Grattamacco's current bottle selection is led by Bolgheri DOC. The clearest grape signal comes from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
Common questions
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It was the second estate to bet on Bolgheri, bought by Piermario Meletti Cavallari in 1977, after only Sassicaia's founder. In 1994 it became the first winery ever to bottle a Bolgheri Rosso. Its flagship Bolgheri Superiore still carries the estate's name.
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