Why Sangiovese? Sangiovese. A wine grape that derives its name from the Latin Sanguis Jovis, “the Blood of Jupiter.” Mythology tells the tale of a single Sangiovese vine growing from the soil where the blood of Jupiter spilled, and from that vine, all other Italian grapes were spawned. Now, genetic mapping has revealed the true tale of the origin of Italy’s thousands of wine grapes, but that doesn’t change the fact that Sangiovese is a wine of many things—sometimes all the things. It haunts us with its complexity and delights us with its refreshment, and we tried to capture our unbridled enthusiasm for this duality in the vineyard and the winery. Our picking decision always aims to capture more freshness than power, but Sangiovese will always give you a bit of both. This 100% Grosso clone comes from cuttings culled from Biondi-Santi in Montalcino, producing some of the most magical grapes at Fox Hill, in our opinion.
Vinification: At the winery, half of the grapes were fully foot-tread and added to the bottom of the fermentation space. The other half of the grapes were left whole bunch and placed on top of the crushed fruit to begin their fermentation much later, and slightly carbonic. This technique greatly slows down the primary fermentation, so you get quite a bit of cold extraction on the front end. Once fermentation really starts to rip, we jump in the bins and gently foot-tread the fruit that was left whole. This late release of sugar from the later-tread grapes once again slows down the fermentation, allowing for more gentle extraction from the skins. As soon as we perceive some chewy tannin, we press the wine off the skins—usually a day or two early—and allow the fermentation to finish off the skins in fiberglass. 100% whole bunch, foot-tread, fermented with wild yeast and native bacteria from the vineyard, and allowed to rest on all lees for 10 months. Bottled with no fining or filtration, with a small addition of 20 parts winemaking sulfur right before bottling.
Notes: Oodles of snappy, crunchy red and black cherry fruit, verve-y and lifted purple flowers, sweet earth, raw ‘nduja, and a welcome high-toned upper register that strolls pleasantly across both nose and palate, leaving refreshment and a strong sense of moreishness in its wake
