Fattoria Carpineta Fontalpino

In 1260 there was a historic battle between the Florentines and the Sienese over a stetch of land that has historically been in the area of these two Tuscan regions. Recorded by Dante in XX , he described it as taking place in the shade of the hill of Montaperti. Eight centuries may have passed but this place has remained one of legend. It is in the shadow of this land that Carpineta Fontalpino has laid down its roots. Its name is a reflection of this historic terroir: Carpineta derives from the Carpini silver backed trees that surround the estate, while Fontalpino is a reference to the water source that surges from the land just below Montaperti. 

It is on the grounds of this historic terroir that Filippo and Gioia Cresti have fought to make their mark on the Tuscan landscape. Their father Italo acquired the land in the 1980s and since inheriting the land in 2004, the siblings have enforced their own philosophies in an area of viticulture that can all too often become overshadowed by the umbrella term that is the Chianti appellation. 

Carpineta Fontalpino attained organic certification in 2008 for an estate that now extends over 80 hectares. Without forgetting the role that biodiversity plays in the health of vines, only 23 hectares of these are cultivated as vineyards. And, as the area suggests, these are mainly dedicated to Sangiovese but with other plots used for Merlot, Gamay and Cabernet Sauvignon. 

On drinking the wines from Carpineta Fonatlapino, the fact that they are doing something a little different to their neighbours is plain to see. The wines are clean to put it simply. There is never too much oak, never too much intervention. The history of the terroir is there as much in the history books as in the mouth.