Winemaker Notes
A typical example of a pure Sangiovese, red with purple reflections, with interesting aromas of plum, cherry, and currant. It is persistent, pleasing and versatile with great balance and finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Lovely aromas of blackberry and currant with lead pencil follow through to a medium body with fine tannins and a bright finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Very steady and consistent, the Fattoria Carpineta Fontalpino 2020 Chianti Classico Fontalpino delivers dark fruit, spice and sweet earth. The bouquet is not especially intense (in fact, the wine is slightly closed at this young stage), but it goes for balance and elegance. Fruit is selected from across 20 hectares of vines with sandy calcareous-rich soils.
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Wine Enthusiast
A very raspberry nose also shows pomegranate and bricks before the palate offers a wider array of cherries and berries, with notes of red meat, dark chocolate and dried fig slowly emerging, anchored by chalky but approachable tannins.
Best Buy
Among Italy's elite red grape varieties, Sangiovese has the perfect intersection of bright red fruit and savory earthiness and is responsible for the best red wines of Tuscany. While it is best known as the chief component of Chianti, it is also the main grape in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and reaches the height of its power and intensity in the complex, long-lived Brunello di Montalcino. Somm Secret—Sangiovese doubles under the alias, Nielluccio, on the French island of Corsica where it produces distinctly floral and refreshing reds and rosés.
One of the first wine regions anywhere to be officially recognized and delimited, Chianti Classico is today what was originally defined simply as Chianti. Already identified by the early 18th century as a superior zone, the official name of Chianti was proclaimed upon the area surrounding the townships of Castellina, Radda and Gaiole, just north of Siena, by Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany in an official decree in 1716.
However, by the 1930s the Italian government had appended this historic zone with additonal land in order to capitalize on the Chianti name. It wasn’t until 1996 that Chianti Classico became autonomous once again when the government granted a separate DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) to its borders. Ever since, Chianti Classico considers itself no longer a subzone of Chianti.
Many Classicos are today made of 100% Sangiovese but can include up to 20% of other approved varieties grown within the Classico borders. The best Classicos will have a bright acidity, supple tannins and be full-bodied with plenty of ripe fruit (plums, black cherry, blackberry). Also common among the best Classicos are expressive notes of cedar, dried herbs, fennel, balsamic or tobacco.