Fontodi

The Manetti family has owned Fontodi since 1968, and the estate's position at the heart of the Panzano amphitheatre — a south-facing bowl of galestro and alberese soils considered the most favoured microclimate in Chianti Classico — has given it an address that winemakers in lesser sites would spend generations trying to acquire.

The conversion to certified organic farming under Ecocert was not reluctant. Giovanni Manetti, who has managed the estate since the 1980s, concluded that the quality of Fontodi's Sangiovese was inseparable from the health of the soils that produced it, and that conventional chemistry was undermining what the Panzano amphitheatre was capable of expressing. The farming record now runs across several decades without synthetic intervention.

Flaccianello della Pieve — a 100% Sangiovese from the estate's oldest vines, aged in small French oak — has drawn 97 points from Wine Spectator and is considered one of the benchmark expressions of the grape by the critical consensus. The Chianti Classico and Chianti Classico Gran Selezione carry the same farming standard at more accessible price points.

Fontodi also produces Syrah — Case Via — that has attracted serious attention from Rhône-focused collectors, which speaks to a versatility of terroir that not all Chianti estates can claim.