Winemaker Notes
This iconic Chianti Classico Annata offers an immediate and persistent structure that is both pleasing and versatile. Well-balanced and expressive, it reveals notes of berry fruits, cherry, and light spices, leaving a warm and comforting impression reminiscent of a gentle embrace.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The organic 2021 Chianti Classico Fontalpino is 100% Sangiovese that starts off in neutral cement and stainless steel and finishes in tonneaux for 12 months of aging. Fruit is sourced from across three sites, totaling 20 hectares of vines, with sandy and loamy limestone-based soils in warm Castelnuovo Berardenga. This is a terrific value bottle with dark cherry and fruit that is amply framed by earthy sensations and a hint of toasted nut.
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Wine Spectator
A pretty red, evoking rose, cherry, strawberry and subtle herb aromas and flavors. Though elegant, this is firmly structured, with a hint of black pepper on the finish.
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.