2016 Fattoria di Fèlsina Fontalloro Tuscany Italy 750 ml

Access to this classic will not last long: Fattoria di Fèlsina, after all, is one of the most respected producers in the world, and their wines are coveted by collectors and sommeliers alike. It’s been in the Poggiali family since 1966, and from its earliest days has set the standard for the heights that wines grown in Chianti can achieve. Fattoria di Fèlsina has long been considered the benchmark winery of Tuscany, and its classically-styled reds are second to none.  

In 2016, they produced their greatest Fontalloro ever: Wine Advocate said as much in their 98+ point rave, calling it “the best vintage of this landmark wine,” a “beautiful” bottling with “precise notes of tar, licorice, camphor ash, resin and Indian spice.” James Suckling seconded that assessment in his own 98-point love letter, calling Fontalloro “clearly great” and “already a star.” 

Wines of this caliber typically cost hundreds, but we acquired a very special allotment and are offering it to you for the outstanding price of just $56.99 per bottle.

Fontalloro is Fèlsina’s calling card. The fruit comes from three old-vine vineyards spread across Chianti Classico and Chianti Colli Senesi, and offers up a singular snapshot of the land—a plush, unforgettable marriage of two regions. Grapes from the Chianti Classico side of the border hail from the famous hillside Fontalloro vineyard at the highest area of Fèlsina, over 1,100 feet above sea level. Soils on the other side are packed with marine sediment and composed of silt and gravel, which help produce bold, complex wines with soft, silky tannins.

That combination reached its peak in 2016, a year that’s notable even within the incredible lineup of Fontalloro vintages that stretch back to 1983. Jancis Robinson wrote that 2016 “produced wines with deep colour and impressive fragrance” in Tuscany, singling out Chianti Classico for particular praise. James Suckling pointed out that “2016 could hardly have been more conducive to making some of the best wines ever for Chianti Classico.”

And Fèlsina capitalized on it, producing a wine that exemplifies everything that has made them the standard-bearer for Tuscan Sangiovese for so long. Typical of their vision, they didn’t try to make a wine of unusual size or power, and they didn’t add any of the Bordeaux varieties that are so in vogue in the region right now. Instead, they had the confidence in their incredible vineyards, their impeccable Sangiovese, to allow them to speak for themselves.

The result is a classic for the ages, a wine that underscores why restaurants like Eleven Madison Park, Per Se, and more proudly feature it on their wine lists. Antonio Galloni has called Fattoria di Fèlsina “one of the great estates in the world,” and the 2016 Fontalloro more than lives up to that assessment. It promises decades of evolution but is irresistible already, and it deliciously embodies everything that makes this particular expression of Sangiovese the envy of producers and collectors around the world. This is as good as it gets. It won’t be available for long.