"Dino 2013”, a Beautiful Amphora Wine by Fontodi...

From the Archive — Panzano in Chianti, 2014
Originally written after a visit of Fontodi. Lightly edited for spelling and clarity; the original voice and impressions have been preserved.

This wine's natural beauty lies in its spirit; it is a wine about a family, land, and the circle of life. When he created “Dino”, Giovanni Manetti not only created a new wine for Fontodi but also paid tribute. Named in honour of his father, who passed away in early 2000, it links the winery back to its roots, where it all began.

Dino Manetti purchased the Fontodi estate in Panzano in Chianti in 1968, and ever since, the family has been driven to produce wine of extremely high quality and purity. But little known to many, the family has its roots in the production of terracotta tiles. Those roots now extend to 8 generations. 

The orci is crafted by hand by the most skilled craftsman of the family enterprise. 

By making wine in “orci”, as these amphorae are called in Tuscany, Giovanni wanted to link the wine to the family's heritage. But this was not enough. He needed to make wine using orci produced by the family company Manetti Gusmano & Figli, which still produces tiles and terracotta items today. The key to this project was to produce them entirely by hand, following ancient and traditional terracotta production methods of Tuscany. More than that, the clay used to make the orci needed to come from the land of Fontodi, where his vines grow to make the wine, thus completing the full circle. From the vine, the grapes return to the soil…

The wine is made with 100% Sangiovese and remains 12 months in the orci with the skins. No sulphites added, no oak, no other production techniques. The orci are left to rest in the cellar at a natural ambient temperature of 14C and 80% humidity, perfect conditions for prolonged evolution.  

Giovanni Manetti created Dino as a tribute to his father.

We tasted 2013 directly from one of the orci. Amazing. Fresh and pure as a whistle. Beautiful aromas of cherries, spices, and plums. A touch of herbs. New on the palate, with a friendly, firm, velvety tannin. A lovely wine. More masculine than feminine yet elegant, self-confident, and worldly.

The striking thing for me was how fresh the wine was. I often think “amphora” wines will show strong oxidation characteristics with nutty, leathery, and dried tobacco leaf notes. Perhaps I cannot get some of these orange wines that claim loudly and proudly that they are made in amphora out of my mind. Here, the wine was unlike anything I expected. Giovanni told me that clay is an excellent vessel for making wine. Its micro-oxygenation is lower than that of a barrel; the clay itself is an antioxidant, and as the wine spends so long on the skin, the tannins fully protect the wine, and so does the CO2 that remains in the wine, trapped in the skins. The top part of the orci was covered with beeswax, giving it extra protection against oxidation and providing the orci with an extra layer of antioxidant properties. But this wax is odourless and tasteless and does not seep into the wine.

A beautiful project, the authentic work of artisans…

Panzano looks over the "Conca d'Oro" with Fontodi's vineyards omnipresent in the valley.