Description
Ficomontanino, Toscana Rosso “Bulgarelli”
The future of Italian wine is female. Correction: The present of Italian wine is female, especially when the grape in question is Sangiovese. In Montalcino, the most buzzed-about producer is the biodynamic artisan Stella di Campalto. In Emilia-Romagna, there’s Chiara Condello and Noelia Ricci. And now, in southern Tuscany, mere kilometers from both the Umbria and Lazio borders, there’s Maria Sole Giannelli.
These producers have much in common, not least of which is a fierce commitment to sustainability in the vineyards and minimal intervention in the cellar, and, not surprisingly, there’s a common thread to the wines—dare I say a feminine sensibility, one that prioritizes finesse and aromatic complexity over concentration and power. Although she only recently began exporting her wines to the US (and only took full control of her family’s vineyards in 2014), today’s 2020 is preternaturally good, deserving of a spot alongside Tuscany’s longer-established classics. “Bulgarelli” is a spectacular debut at a remarkably fair price—a new Sangiovese must-have for devotees of this finicky-yet-fabulous variety.
Ficomontanino (“little fig mountain”) is the kind of “new generation” wine idyll that is, thankfully, becoming ever-more-trendy these days. Maria Sole studied at Slow Food’s University of Culinary Arts in Pollenzo, Piedmont, where she read Fukuoka and Steiner and became inspired to transform a farm her grandfather first acquired in the 1960s. Located in the southeastern reaches of Tuscany in the village of Chiusi, the Ficomontanino estate includes 12 hectares of vineyards, most of them planted by Maria Sole’s grandfather more than 40 years ago on south-facing slopes reaching to elevations of 350 meters. Upon taking control of these vines in 2014, Maria Sole introduced organic and biodynamic agricultural practices, seeking to create a self-sustaining ecosystem on the property. Her all-natural approach to viticulture is echoed in the cellar, where wines are fermented spontaneously on ambient yeasts and treated with the smallest possible addition of sulfur at bottling.
The Bulgarelli bottling is 100% Sangiovese sourced from estate vineyards averaging 20-30 years of age, in soils of sandstone and clay. The spontaneous fermentation, which includes a 12- to 15-day maceration on skins, is carried out in a mix of concrete and steel vats. The finished wine then ages for at least six months in concrete, and three months in bottle, before release. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, this is a resolutely “minimal intervention” wine but also a clean and precise one. That can only be achieved when everything is done incredibly carefully, by hand.
To quote Ficomontanino’s importer, “the ever-versatile Sangiovese finds a new and lovely register” in Bulgarelli. I’ll add that it’s an upper register; this is perfumed, high-toned Sangiovese in the Stella di Campalto mold, its red berry/wild strawberry/black cherry fruit tempered by lots of underbrush, black pepper, dried rose petal, and other earthy, savory goodness. There’s plenty of juicy fruit on the mid-palate but also the tension, smoke, and grip that characterizes a proper Sangiovese wine. Decant this about 30 minutes before serving in Burgundy stems and pair it with something simple and unmistakably Tuscan like ribollita or pappa al pomodoro (I like mine kind of bread-heavy, FWIW). Maria Sole Giannelli has planted her flag and I expect we’ll be hearing more from (and about) her in the future. Here’s your chance to say, “I knew her when…”
