Rosso di Montalcino
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100% Sangiovese. Fonterenza's classic Rosso di Montalcino comes from their hilly, contiguous 4.2 hectares of vines in San Polo, just southeast of Montalcino. All of it qualifies as Brunello turf technically, but the legal constraints on Brunello production were very tight when the Padovani sisters started Fonterenza in the late 1990s; only around one hectare's worth of fruit can be used for Brunello, so the rest goes into this Rosso and one other red, their IGT Alberello.
The farming has been incredibly meticulous and biodynamic from the start and has been certified as such for years. The vines are planted on a wildly diverse range of range of sandy, stony limestone-rich soils; the parcels that go into the Rosso (and Alberello) face north. Each parcel is hand-harvested and vinified separately. The bunches are destemmed by hand, gently pressed and fermented spontaneously with native yeasts and a minute bit of sulfur in open-top oak vats. The maceration is around 15-20 days. The wine is blended and aged in variously sized, old Slavonian oak botti for 24 to 30 months. It is bottled without filtration or additional sulfur.