Fontodi Chianti Classico 2017 - 1.5 Litre

#26 Wine Enthusiast Top 100 of 2020!

The Fontodi Chianti Classico DOCG Bio is a wine that represents with great prestige this prestigious and historic Tuscan winery, now renowned and awarded all over the world. Plain and genuine wine but with a great elegance from traditional processing that gives unique emotions: 100% Sangiovese grapes come from a selection of particularly suitable soils, the wine naturally ferments with indigenous yeasts in steel and then refines at least 18 months in French barrique.

95 Points - Wine Enthusiast    Fragrant and delicious, this opens with aromas of ripe black-skinned fruit, blue flower, leather, underbrush and a whiff of French oak. The full-bodied, enveloping palate delivers baked plum, Marasca cherry, licorice and a note of espresso framed in fine-grained enveloping tannins that give it a smooth texture and a weightless finesse.

94 Points - Vinous    The 2017 Chianti Classico Fontodi is a wine of extreme elegance that shows how much the house style has evolved here. A decade ago, in a warm year the Fontodi Chianti Classico would have been opulent, but these days proprietor Giovanni Manetti seeks finesse more than power, and that is exactly what comes through here. Ripe red Sangiovese fruit, rose petal, blood orange and spice infuse this racy, exotic Chianti Classico with so much character. The 2017 spent two years in oak, half in cask and half in neutral oak. I loved it. 

91 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate    The Fontodi 2017 Chianti Classico gives the impression of being slightly mature or advanced, even now straight out of the gate. The hot and dry vintage has shaped aromas of candied cherry, dried plum, rum raisin, white chocolate and a dusty note of wet chalk. The wine is quite beautiful in terms of mouthfeel, with well-integrated alcohol and tannins that close without sharpness or astringency. This dark and sultry Sangiovese shows moderate fruit, focused mostly on dark blackberry and dried cherry. I would recommend a near-term drinking window for this pleasantly rich and accessible wine.