About this wine
Vineyard and terroir
The southwest-facing Vigna del Sorbo vineyard has 55-year-old vines. Fontodi’s 67 ha of vineyards lie in the Conca d’Oro valley, south of Panzano, at 380–400 m above sea level. The soils are predominantly calcareous clay, with good drainage that allows the roots to grow deeply. The estate practises biological viticulture without chemical fertilizers.
Grapes
Until 2012, the wine included a small proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon alongside Sangiovese.
Vinification
Each variety is vinified separately. Spontaneous fermentation and three weeks of maceration take place in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks, with the cap punched down twice daily. Fontodi uses a gravity-flow cellar, completed in 1998, in which vessels are arranged on different levels so that wine can be transferred without pumps.
Ageing
The wine matures for 24 months in French oak barrels from Allier and Tronçais, half of them new.
Label / history
The name Fontodi derives from the Latin “Fons-odi,” meaning “a place with plenty of water.” Grapes were cultivated on the estate in Roman times, while sixteenth-century documents record winemaking with dedicated equipment at the Case Via farm.
The Manetti family, historically producers of Tuscan terracotta and other clay goods and unrelated to the owners of Montevertine, acquired the Panzano estate in 1968. It is now run by brothers Marco and Giovanni Manetti, with Franco Bernabei as consulting oenologist. The gravity-flow cellar completed in 1998 was among the first of its kind in Tuscany and was designed to avoid the potential damage associated with pumping wine between vessels.
