About Fontodi
Fontodi is a family-owned estate owned by the Manetti family, located in the Conca d'Oro, the central valley of the Chianti Classico zone in Tuscany, Italy. The estate covers approximately 70 hectares of vineyards and is particularly known for producing highly regarded Chianti Classico wines, including the single-vineyard Vigna del Sorbo. Fontodi also produces Flaccianello della Pieve, a 100% Sangiovese IGT wine that has earned significant critical recognition.
Prices are for take away and shipping. The wine bar serves from its own list.
The winery
About Fontodi
History
Fontodi has been a wine estate only since 1968, the year the Manetti family bought it. Before that, the family had spent about three hundred years making terracotta, and the estate they took on was in poor shape. They replanted the vineyards and renovated the cellar, and wine became the new family trade.
Giovanni Manetti runs the estate today, with his cousin Marco and the oenologist Franco Bernabei beside him. One of the first big steps came in the early 1980s, when the estate made the first vintage of Flaccianello della Pieve, a Sangiovese bottled on its own, a style few in Chianti Classico were making at the time.
The land and the vineyards
The vineyards lie around Panzano in Chianti, in the Chianti Classico zone. The estate sits in a valley south of the village shaped like an amphitheatre, known locally as the Conca d'Oro, the golden shell. Slopes face the sun for most of the day, which suits Sangiovese.
The estate is certified organic and follows biodynamic practice as well, with the vineyards worked by hand where the terrain asks for it. Fontodi also keeps olive groves, and its oil is sold under the Chianti Classico DOP name.
The wines
Sangiovese leads the range. Flaccianello della Pieve is the best known, a pure Sangiovese. Alongside it come Vigna del Sorbo, Terrazze San Leolino and the estate Chianti Classico, each from its own vineyard or blend. Filetta di Lamole comes from a separate vineyard in Lamole, a cooler, higher part of the Chianti Classico zone.
Outside Sangiovese, the estate makes Case Via Pinot Noir and Case Via Syrah, a red called Meriggio, and a Vin Santo del Chianti Classico. The range gives a wine lover several ways into one estate, from an everyday Chianti Classico to the single vineyard bottles.
Today
Fontodi works only with grapes from its own vineyards. Panzano remains the home of the cellar, and the range has grown to nine wines plus two olive oils. The Manetti family still owns and runs it.
- Founded
- 1968 (Manetti family purchase)
- Main grapes
- Sangiovese
- Owners
- Manetti family
- Winemaker
- Franco Bernabei (consulting oenologist)