Fontodi Gran Selezione Vigna Del Sorbo & Fontodi Chianti Classico

OFFER

With the big discounts in today’s offer for Chianti Classico from the Fontodi Estate, these wines offer some INCREDIBLE VALUE in their respective categories.  They own some of the best soils, so it’s no surprise they make some outstanding wines.

The 2017 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigna del Sorbo is a dense, packed wine. It is also surprisingly, almost shockingly backward. That is probably a good thing for its long-term aging prospects. Readers hoping to get an early glimpse into the 2017 before it shuts down may have a hard time doing that, as today acids and tannin dominate. I expect the 2017 will be stellar in another 4-5 years and drink well to age 25-30 if not longer. Proprietor Giovanni Manetti gave the 2017 18 months in barrique followed by 6 months in cask.  - Vinous Media 96+

($97) The Fontodi 2017 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigna del Sorbo is expressive, dark and thickly concentrated. I received my samples early and found that this wine was a little shy or slow to open in this early phase. If given extra time, the bouquet warms up to dark fruit, plum, rum cake and dried violet. I came back to the wine about two hours later and discovered a pretty note of crushed aspirin or carbon, with more crushed flower. The oak adds sweet spice and scorched earth, but these too will integrate with time. From a hot and dry vintage, I'd easily give this edition of Vigna del Sorbo a 15- or 20-year drinking window . - Wine Advocate 94

Powerful, tight red with currant and plum character. Hints of new wood and bark. Full-bodied with dark berries and hints of dark chocolate, as well as other dark fruit. Flavorful finish. Solid. Needs time to open.  - James Suckling 95

Offering a clear snapshot of the vintage, the 2019 Chianti Classico draws its organic fruit only from Panzano from estate vineyards and a few leased parcels in the Conca d'Oro. The bouquet opens to fresh cherry, bright rose and other floral nuances. The mineral signature in this wine is strong and serves to give focus and linearity. It offers good flavor intensity to the palate, with elegant tannins to finish.  - Wine Advocate 92

The 2019 Chianti Classico is fresh, vibrant and so expressive. Aromatic and expansive, with terrific nuance, the 2019 is one of the most elegant Chianti Classicos I have tasted at Fontodi. Crushed flowers, red/purplish fruit, spice, lavender and pipe tobacco build into the delineated, vibrant finish. Drink: 2022-2034. (Jul 2022)"  - Vinous 93+

Delicate aromas recalling scorched earth and truffle mingle with mocha and botanical herbs on this 100% Sangiovese. Elegant and enveloping, the supple palate features fleshy plum, orange zest and baking spice before an espresso finish. Soft tannins offer supple support. Drink through 2024. (May 2022). - Wine Enthusiast 94

— STORY —

This is a story of a family quite literally connected to the galestro soils of Chianti. The Manettis had long produced terracotta tiles from their kilns at Greve, including supplying the roof for Florence’s Duomo. By 1968, the wine bug had bitten Dino Manetti, long a hobby winegrower, and he acquired Panzano’s Fontodi, with ten hectares of vineyards in the heart of Chianti Classico, always with an eye to the future. He even brought his young sons to witness signing the sale contract, and a decade later put Giovanni and Marco, aged just 16 and 19, in charge of the estate. They expanded production to 70 hectares, instituting organic practices everywhere and built a gravity-fed winery. They maintain biodiversity too, devoting about 50 hectares to other uses. Although the brothers were supposed to switch places working at the kilns and the winery, younger Giovanni ended up leading Fontodi. He’s never stopped, which included incorporating the family’s terracotta tradition into the wine production, using fired amphorae. 

“The soil in Chianti Classico is a unique earth,” he says, referring to galestro. “It’s calcareous clay schist that works beautifully with Sangiovese as it’s rocky, allowing rain to drain through the soil. Roots can dig deep . . . “ The high concentrations of chalk, marl and limestone content lend “the high acidity of the wine,” he concludes. The Manetti kilns north of Greve fire clay of “the same geological origin . . . which is also perfect for making amphorae.” This adds to the diversity offered by Fontodi wines, which also include many wines traditionally aged in Troncais and Allier oak barrels.

One of those is the Fontodi Chianti Classico, a superb value fermented with indigenous yeasts, maturing for 18 months in those barrels. A blend of mostly Sangiovese with a bit of Canaiolo, it’s a foundational wine. Giovanni truly believes in Sangiovese’s potential and only blending with traditional varieties, avoiding “foreign” varietals. It’s a very “delicate and sensitive grape,” he concludes. “Exalt the terroir!” He should know, as he now serves as President of the Consorzio Chianti Classico and Chairman of the Vino Chianti Classico Consortium.