2024 Fanti, Rosso di Montalcino DOC, Tuscany, Italy.
The Fanti Rosso di Montalcino is a wine I highly recommend for its quality and pleasure in the glass, giving Brunello like flavors and easily drinkable when young, as this gorgeous 2024 did recently. The wine is deep garnet in the glass and palate here is deep also with beautiful purity of Sangiovese, it shows off blackberry, black cherry, plum, currant and strawberry fruits, along with hints of exotic spices, mineral, cedar, minty anise, delicate florals, sage and pipe tobacco. The Sangiovese Grosso (Brunello clone) vines at Fanti is grown with all sustainable methods on the classic, almost chalky, Galestro and a mix of schist and sandy soils, adding to the terroir character here, and the wine saw a careful selection of hand picked clusters that were gently de-stemmed once in the cellar. The juice is macerated and fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel vats, after which the wine is matured for at least a year in a mix of small barrels, mostly used and larger old school 30HL neutral casks, providing some opulence and feel, but allowing for nice transparency, as witnessed here. Again, as I have mentioned, the value here at Fanti is outstanding, especially when you taste this Rosso di Montalcino, even at restaurant list pricing it delivers.
The Fanti Family, as noted before, has been producing wine, most notably their Brunello post WWII, and-extra virgin olive oil in Tuscany for the better part of 200 years. I learned that In the 1970s, current owner Filippo first took over Fanti, which is a major turning point in its history, leading to much greater quality and fame within the region of Montalcino. After redesigning and replanting across its 300 hectare, an innovation-meets-tradition winemaking technique was adopted here and this resulted in better grape growing, all while avoiding any non-organic fertilizers and promoting sustainable viticulture. Eighty percent of the plantings in the vineyards at Fanti, not surprisingly are Sangiovese or Sangiovese Grosso (Brunello clone), a focus that reinforces, what the family says, is a commitment to the top quality wine of the region, reflected in their highly rated Brunelli offering, like this one. Filippo’s daughter Elisa, who I’ve met in recent years, joined the team in 2007 and has since been instrumental promoting Fanti to the world, through extensive travel to the best markets, including San Francisco again, where I last caught up with Fanti and tasted this delicious wine. I also got to re-vist the Brunellos, which were drinking even better now, with an additional bit of age, this is an excellent collection of wines.
($20 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive