Poderi Sanguineto Rosso di Montepulciano 2022 | Tuscany, Italy

Guess what, it's not Montepulciano, but (mostly) Sangiovese! Rosso di Montepulciano is a region in Tuscany, famed for Sangiovese.

Confusing hey? Don't worry, all will be healed when you taste how delicious it is.

Producer: Poderi Sanguineto I e II - Dora Forsoni

Region: Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy

Grapes: Prugnolo Gentile (Sangiovese), Canaiolo Nero, and Mammolo

Intensely perfumed and full flavoured. Bright cherry fruit, ripe red berries, flrorals, light savoury spiced noted, rich freshly tilled earth, and a tarry tone.

Rich on the palate, with an enveloping mouthfeel, structured with chewy and rustic earthy tannin and a touch of mineral driven acid, long and persistent on the finish finish.

A beautifully balanced wine that is at a quality far beyond the price.

THE ESTATE

This wine comes from the family estate of Dora Forsoni and her partner Patrizia. Dora is truly amazing. Currently in her 70's she and her partner still do all the vineyard work themselves on their 3.5 ha family estate.

The work is meticulous with a focus on doing everything by hand with an eye on quality. Everything from tilling the soil to tying each vine is done by Dora by hand. Dora first started working alongside her father in 1968, although in those days most of the fruit was sold off in bulk. Dora only began bottling and selling her own wines in 1997.

The estate has been organic for decades with zero chemicals used and even very few organic treatments. The vines are re-planted selection massale but even very old vines are given new life. The old vine is cut off at the base and a new vine allowed to grow from the old trunk. A pretty rare practice in Tuscany.

Only one wine is made on the estate. The different cuvees are only differentiated by their length of aging. 

Double points nerd bonus round! There is a "I" and "II" semi-hidden on the label. This refers to the history of the vineyard, which was divided into blocks to be worked by sharecroppers in the early 1900's. The numbers reference the face that Sanguineto is made up of the old #1 and #2 blocks.

NERD NOTES

A blend of Sangiovese (80%), Canaiolo Nero (10%) and Mammolo (10%) grapes, which come from around Montepulciano in the Province of Sienna, where Sangiovese is known locally as 'Prugnolo Gentile'.

The grapes are handpicked (with mostly whole berries) using small crates, which are immediately taken to the cellar for destemming.

The wine is spontaneous fermented with indigenous yeasts in cement and stainless steel tanks, with an 8 to 10 day skin maceration, and pump overs occurring twice daily during fermentation, before being gently pressed.

The wine is aged for two years in a mixture of Slavonian and Allier oak barrels (with sizes ranging from 18hL to 30 hL).

Bottled with minimal added sulphur.