2019 Fattoria Mani di Luna, Sangiovese, São João, IGT Rosso, Umbria, Italy.
Bright still, and remarkably fresh for the vintage, the São João Rosso is a dark ruby/garnet in the glass with an approachable, playful and natural style medium bodied palate of blackberry, cherry, plum and lingonberry fruits, along with accents of minty herbs, crushed mix flowers, a hint of cigar wrapper, rosemary, warm stone and a touch of bay leaf. The overall impression is one of dry crispness, raw details and supple tannin, making for a wine that is quaffable, but best with food to bring out the full depth here. There’s no sense of pretense or trying to be anything grand in the bottle, just laid back fun to enjoy with an easy simple meal with friends. Minimal intervention and careful grape growing is the mission here at Fattoria Mani di Luna, and owners Rocco Trauzzola, Alessandro de Filippis and Simone Lazzarin, in the wilds of Italy’s Umbia region, with all organic (biodynamic) vines. The soil here, the winery notes, is largely composed of sand with sandstone and calcareous marl. This sandy soil is essential for maintaining low PH and high acidity even when the grapes reach higher sugar levels, which is essential for crafting natural wines and using low amounts of sulphur if any. This São João Rosso, 100% Sangiovese, was made with hand de-stemmed and sorted grapes and then was foot-trodden, allowing native yeasts to do the fermentation in cement vats. The wine was then aged for 24 months with 12 months each in concrete vat and used old oak casks, depending on the vintage I imagine, providing time to smooth out, but remain vibrant and transparent, as this 2019 version shows nicely.
Located in bucolic Umbria the Fattoria Mani di Luna is an authentic place where, the winery says nature, tradition, and research meet and as good as the wines here are, I understand, the farm also produces a fine 100% Moraiolo Extra Virgin Olive Oil which might be even better. Doing my own research, as I hadn’t had Fattoria Mani di Luna before, importer Louis/Dressner provided a wealth of cool information about this unique property that is a joint effort of (the) three long-time friends, Simone, Rocco and Alessandro (Alessandro and Rocco played in a band together for years and Rocco and Simone were classmates in Perugia studying agronomy). Their shared love of nature and agriculture, coupled with a desire to rejuvenate the soil and vines through organic and biodynamic practices, is the driving force behind the project. The Fattoria Mani di Luna estate, is in a somewhat forgotten, but historically important area, that is composed of 35 hectares, but with only 7.5 planted to vine and located in Torgiano, an area of Italy that can trace its grape growing traditions back to the ancient Etruscans. In keeping with the local traditional methods, most of the grapes are foot-tread and all the wines see significant lees contact with regular bâtonnage (stirring). Interestingly the winery does a Riesling, but mostly is focused on indigenous grape varietals, including Sangrantino and Grechetto, along with other rarities. Everything is done by hand here and the commitment to the environment is one of passion and purpose, I really want to visit Umbia, a place I missed last time to Italy and this just might be on my list of places to check out.
($30 Est.) 90 Points, grapelive