Sanguineto’s Rosso di Montepulciano puts old-school Tuscan wine making center stage. Interestingly, Dora follows a philosophy of 'un’annata, uno vino, tre espressioni' ('one year, one wine, three expressions'), by which, following in the footsteps of her father’s no-nonsense approach, she initially produces just a single red wine each vintage, deciding within the cellar whether she should sequester a portion of the harvest to progress further into a Vino Nobile, or then even further into Vino Nobile riserva style, each of them dictated by the length of time spent aging in barrel. Her Rosso, made up of 80% Prugnolo Gentile (aka local Sangio) and 20% Canaiolo Nero & Mammolo, sees just a single year in botti, the resulting wine emerging as the ultimate ‘pizza-and-everything-else’ bottle. Savory, mid-weighted, juicy, and redolent of ripe cherries, red berries, sweet wild herbs and the suggestion of something aromatic in the vein of violets pressed between the pages of an old book. Chiseled acid, perky tannins… what a swooner of a wine!
Sanguineto farmer/winemaker Dora Forsoni is widely considered to be one of the wise old sages of modern-day Tuscany’s winemaking community. An avid hunter who ‘hates wasting bullets’ and butchers all her kills, Dora, now well into her 70s, still manages and maintains each and every vine on the property alone, only allowing outsiders on her land during the busy weeks of harvest. However, despite her rugged exterior, she might be one of the funniest, warmest, friendliest, brutally honest and passionate people in the business. Forever rebelling against modernization, bureaucracy, and industrial farming practices, her timeless, unadulterated, and deeply satisfying wines are the direct result of one woman’s dogged commitment to purity and tradition. Legend has it that Dora’s property was once the site of some of the most brutally violent battles between the Etruscans and Romans, leaving the land so inundated with the blood of fallen soldiers that it was dubbed Sanguineto ('bloody'). Today, Sanguineto is a far less barbaric place (Dora’s rabbit hunting prowess aside), and a land hallmarked by the intensely red clay/sand soils that Montepulciano has become known for.