Fontodi Tuscan Wine Tasting With Special Guest Dominic Nocerino

If reassurances could dull pain, nobody would ever go to the trouble of pressing grapes.

SCOTT LYNCH, The Lies of Locke Lamora

The Manetti family has owned Fontodi since 1969 but has been in Chianti for centuries. Though they have always made wine, their primary business is still the production of Chiantii´s finest terracotta at their factory in Ferrone.  Giovanni Manetti has run the property since 1980 and ensures the wines are as meticulously made as the vineyards are immaculately tended. Their 80 hectares of vineyard, 90% of which are Sangiovese, are situated in the prime i´concadi´oroi´ (golden shell) of Panzano, and over the past decade these have been converted to organic viticulture. Giovanni is now following biodynamic principles to obtain the best quality fruit. There are 80 hectares of south facing vineyards, all of which are found in an amphitheatre-shaped valley to the south of Panzano. This shape facilitates the full ripening of the grapes. The stony galestro soils allow for excellent drainage and encourage the vines to put down deep roots.

I just had the 1990 Flaccianello at the Wine Bar a few weeks ago and it was spectacular!!  This wine is fully mature now and is a quintessential example of a great vintage Sangiovese based wine from Tuscany.  The 1999 was also still incredibly fresh and lively and I bet you could hold on to it for another 10+ years.   After last year’s tasting I decided to make this an annual event as there is no better way to spend an evening than with 10 vintages of Flaccianello and therefore we will offer our “Wine Drinking people” this opportunity every year until I have no more Flaccianello to drink!!

This tasting features Fontodi’s flagship wine (100% Sangiovese based) Flaccianello along with a selection of Fontodi wines with current releases and a few older vintages to show how well these wines age.  We have shown Flaccianello all the way back to the first vintage 1982 at prior events.  Flaccianello was a single vineyard wine up until the 2004 vintage when they replanted the vineyard then it became a selection of the best Sangiovese from the entire property.  We feel it is one of the best wines made in Tuscany and we never miss a chance to drink this iconic Super tuscan. 

In fact, we have one of the largest selections of Fontodi wines on the planet earth so check out everything that we have in the store on this offering after the information about this tasting.  The fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $295 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.

Fontodi Tuscan Wine Tasting
with Special Guest Founder/Owner of Vinifera Imports  Dominic Nocerino
Thursday, June 22nd
7:30pm

De Steffani Prosecco Millesimato
2021 Fontodi Meriggio Sauvignon
2015 Fontodi Chianti Filetta di Lamole
2019 Fontodi Chianti Filetta di Lamole
2019 Fontodi Chianti Classico
2018 Fontodi Pinot Nero
2018 Fontodi Dino
2012 Fontodi Chianti Classico Vigna del Sorbo
2018 Fontodi Chianti Classico Vigna del Sorbo
2009 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve
2018 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve
2018 Fontodi Syrah
2012 Fontodi Vin Santo

Menu
Procuitto di Parma and Reggiano Parmesan
Fontodi Olive Oil Laved with Roasted Garlic and Rosemary served with Charred Ciabatta Bread
Tagliolini Pasta with Duck and Foie Gras Sausage, Goat Cheese and Sundried Tomato
Bistecca Florentine with Green Peas, Carrot and Beet Salad
Zuccotto

The fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $295 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.  Please let us know when you make your reservations if you have any dietary restrictions and chefs Toni and Dani will be happy to accommodate you.

Please let us know when you make your reservations if you have special dietary restrictions chef Toni is happy to accommodate you.

A bit about Fontodi:

In the beginning there were Fontodi bricks and tiles.  The work comes from fonte di odo, which means a place rich with water.  Brunelleschi’s Florentine cupola was restored with Fontodi tiles.  Ancient and modern day Florentine homes use Fontodi tiles for decoration and for their natural warmth.  The same family made the bricks that pave the Uffizi Galley in Florence.  This family with the same hand and the same will has also been involved with the wine but for a shorter time.  It was Maria, the mother, who took an active part in the winery.  She first got the family interested in wine   They purchased the winery in 1968, and by 1980 the had moved there from Panzano.  It is a difficult land to farm but it yields some of the finest stone and clay for bricks, and tiles, but the finest oils and the most noble wines.

Today, Fontodi is one of the leaders in Chianti, their wines have consistently impressed the critics; from the Gambero Rosso (the Italian wine bible), Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate (the American authority on wine), to The Wine Spectator (the most popular international wine/lifestyle publication), all of these publications have waxed poetic about the wines from this estate.  The estate of Fontodi is on a hill just south of Panzano, from where you can look across the valley towards Rampolla and Cafaqqio.  The gardens are full of Rosemary and in May the cuckoos are noisy.  Since the Manetti family has owned the estate they have undertaken a major renovations of the vineyards.  The young and talented owner, Giovanni Manetti, is one of the most far-sighted and intellectual grower-producers in all of Italy.  His estate is enchanting, not only because of the villa where it is based is spectacularly beautiful, but also because Manetti has consistently made quality the first priority in all areas of the business, from rootstock, to trellising, to hiring the brightest mind in winemaking in all of Italy, Franco Bernabei.  Franco has won more "Glasses" in Gambero Rosso than anyone in the history of the guide.  Manetti’s greatest attribute is his common sense and his commanding personality which makes others stand up and listen. 

The winery focuses its efforts on seven wines.  Two Chianti’s, a Classico and a single vineyard wine called Vigna Del Sorbo.  The Chianti Classico is 100% sangiovese and is the product of traditional winemaking.  The wine is aged for six months in oak barrels, it completes its refinement in the bottle.  It is a graceful, balanced, elegant, and stylish wine, but still easily to enjoy in its youth.  The Vigna Del Sorbo Chianti Classico Riserva is a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon blended according to traditional methods and matured in small oak casks. 

The flagship wine Flaccianello Della Piave, a 100% Sangiovese based wine which until the 2004 vintage this wine was made from a single vineyard surrounding the age-old parish church in Panzano, but from 2005 on it has become a selection of the best Sangivoese from the entire property.  This wine is made with carefully controlled fermentation and strict temperature control during the initial stages.  It is big and powerful wine yet retains a ripe, soft, seductive character. 

The only white produced here is named Meriggio, it is 100% sauvignon blanc grapes vinified in stainless steel tanks, temperature-controlled and matured on lees for 6 months.  This is the first time this wine has been exported to the U.S. and we are proud to be the exclusive retailer of this wine in South Florida!

Two of the smallest production wines with the Fontodi moniker are the Syrah and Pinot Nero cuvées bottled under the Case Via label. The Pinot Noir reflects the influences on Giovanni's wine education, having grown up at a time when Chianti was a much derided region, and he looked abroad to Burgundy, among other regions, for inspiration. The Pinot Noir vines were planted in 1985, as were the Syrah vines, during a period of youthful experimentation for Manetti.  The Syrah is one of the best examples of this varietal made in Italy and can rival the Flaccianello in quality in great vintages.

Fontodi also makes a Vinsanto, an Italian dessert wine, this is a blend of malvasia and sangiovese grapes which are naturally air dried on straw mats until December.  After a soft pressing the wine is aged for four years in four different kinds of wood (oak, chestnut, cherry and juniper) in cask that vary also in age and capacity.  This wine has a yellow-golden color and a delicate fragrance of honey and hazelnuts.  On the palate it is dry, warm, fragrant but suitably soft.