Dora Forsoni is an immensely likable, courageous, and wise woman. Before you continue reading, I urge you to first watch this brief and wonderful
video—it says a lot about who she is and the wines she makes.
Dora’s father (a single dad) farmed grapes just a few hundred feet outside the walled medieval city of Montepulciano, dead center in the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG. Montepulciano is one hour south of Chianti Classico and one hour east of the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, and together these three appellations make up the global epicenter of the Sangiovese variety. Despite the superior quality of her father’s fruit and the historically important location, commercial wine production was not an economically viable option in her father’s era. So, with the exception of a small amount of homemade wine for personal consumption, his fruit was always sold off in bulk to the local cooperative or larger corporate wine labels. Grape vines occupied only a fraction of the family’s property leaving room for subsistence crops like cereal grains and vegetables. After her father passed away, Dora discovered a small collection of homemade wine from the 1970’s in unlabeled bottles while cleaning out his house. Out of curiosity, she opened one—and much to her surprise it was vibrant, delicious, and a classic expression of the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano terroir. Dora clearly recognized that her land had the potential to produce world class wine so she immediately began working to make this potential a reality.
After a few years of trial and error, Dora began bottling her own wines independently under the property’s historic name Sanguineto I&II in the mid 1990's. This is a proudly and strictly organic property and even during the peak of chemical farming, she challenged convention and refused to farm with any chemicals or systemic herbicides. Dora’s pruning and plowing practices are similarly restrained—canopies grow freely and vines on the Sanguineto estate are noticeably greener and more alive than those of neighboring properties. Even the traditionally brick-colored clay/sand soil of Montepulciano appear darker and more fertile on this property. It’s a special place.
Dora’s tendency to challenge the status quo extends to grape varieties as well. Most producers in the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG plant the same high yielding clonal selection of Sangiovese. Sanguineto I&II is the opposite—the property is a mosaic of ancient local varieties Mammolo, Canaiolo, and Nero Toscano in addition to the ancient local Sangiovese clone Prugnolo Gentile. This diversity creates greater complexity and local character, and it guarantees that the wines of Sanguineto I&II are unlike any other wine in Tuscany.
Dora Forsoni’s 2012 Sanguineto I&II Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is classically styled and made very much in the tradition of noble Tuscan wines from the 1960's and 1970's. Its dark crimson core extends to garnet and orange hues on the rim. On the nose, the wine explodes with brooding, classic Tuscan aromas: meaty black cherry and red currant fruit, dried roses and ginger bread, red tobacco, grilled meat, leather, tomato leaf and dried clay. The palate is defined by formidable tannins, but they are both smooth and well integrated so the wine remains full and approachable even in its youth. Layers of plum, black cherry, pomegranate and wild Italian herbs round out the finish. For best results, I encourage you to decant the wine for 1 hour before serving in large Burgundy stems to capture the beautiful floral notes in the wine. Still, as with all great Tuscan reds, it will only improve with time in the cellar. I’ve enjoyed many older bottles of Sanguineto and I promise this bottle has at least 10 years of improvement ahead of it. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano offers an outstanding value for collectors of Italian wine and this is one of the best. Cheers.
