Rosso di Montepulciano

80% Prugnolo Gentile/20% Canaiolo Nero & Mammolo. Prugnolo Gentile is the "noble" variant of Sangiovese found in Montepulciano and historically co-planted with supporting varieties like Canaiolo and Mammolo. Proprietor Dora Forsoni has been farmiing her family vines organically forever, many of them quite old (plantings go back to 1963) and all maintained meticulously by her by hand. Soils are worked several times per year. The bunches are harvested by hand and destemmed with the berries left mainly whole. Fermentation is spontaneous with native yeasts in concrete tanks. Maceration lasts around 10 days before a very gently pressing. The wine is aged for 1 year in a mix of French and Slavonian oak botti ranging from 18 to 30 hectoliters. Notably, Dora makes a single red wine, which then becomes her Rosso di Montepulciano, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and a riserva Vino Nobile, distinguished simply by length of aging. The "I & II" tucked discreetly into the estate name on the label is a reference to Sanguineto's mezzadria history: like so many Italian properties in the early 20th century, it was divided into blocks worked by sharecroppers--the modern-day estate consists of the old #1 and #2 blocks.