Fontodi FILETTA DI LAMOLE FONTODI Chianti Classico 2019

Description

Filetta di Lamole Fontodi offers a bouquet rich in fruit, clear and ample. In the mouth it is tight and slender with hints of berries, black currant and black cherry supported by mineral notes of crushed stone and flint. It is light in texture with a fine and elegant closure. Filetta di Lamole shows an indomitable character in the style of Fontodi’s.

Lamole is a forgotten corner of Chianti, located high above Panzano. Some parcels of old Sangiovese, grown as sapling, survived the decimation of replanting in the early 1970s. It is from these old vines, planted in the 1920s, that Giovanni Manetti di Fontodi took the cuttings to propagate his clones and replant his vineyards in Fontodi. It is partly from these old vines that the quality and intensity of Fontodi derives.

Giovanni had long cherished the dream of producing a wine in Lamole, considering it to be one of the most distinctive areas of Chianti. The hamlet is 620 meters above sea level. The wines come from sandy soils and are fragrant and elegant, the bouquet develops in the cool nights and from the long ripening season at this altitude. Giovanni Manetti convinced his cousin, Lorenzo Socci, to work with him on seven hectares of vineyards on a property called Filetta. Together they restored the vineyard and in 2014 they harvested their first grapes.

The wine was immediately fascinating. Since the wines are lighter, Giovanni has decided to age them in large barrels, as opposed to the barriques he uses in Fontodi. Made exclusively with Sangiovese, it has a beautiful color, with a shade similar to Pinot Noir both in the glass and on the nose.

The Fontodi farm was used by the Manetti family in 1968. Its position – right in the center of the Chianti Classico appellation, with south facing vineyards, soils rich in marl, in the beautiful natural amphitheater that is the Conca d’oro di Panzano in Chianti at about 400 m asl – is dominant.

The management has been organic for many years now; there is even a small group of Chianine from which the base of the fertilizer is obtained to fertilize the vines. Some old vines from the 1960s and 1970s are still in production, but most have been replaced by high-density vineyards whose plants derive from both mass selection and the best clones that emerged during the Chianti Classico 2000 project.

The recent construction of the new cellar is perfectly equipped and works according to the principles of gravity which eliminates the need for pumping. Everything has been thought and designed to make the best wines possible.