Fonterutoli's Siepi – 2004 back to 1993

In the second of our series of vertical tastings of significant Italian wines (see details of our Italian Wine Festival for other Italian tasting notes) we take a look at Siepi, the Mazzei family of Fonterutoli’s ‘cru’ from a 6 ha plot in the heart of the Siepi vineyard (pictured at the end of the article) at an elevation of 260 m near Castellina in Chianti. It’s a blend of generally equal parts of Sangiovese and Merlot, planted in 1986, and the resulting wines, made under the direction of oenologist Carlo Ferrini, are given an average of 18 months...