Fontodi - Flaccianello 2015 (Magnum) *

Anbau: biologisch

Ausbau: 24 Monate Barrique

Flaschenreifung: mehrere Monate

Inhalt / Gebinde: 150 cl / 1er Holzkiste

The 2015 Flaccianello della Pieve is even more stratospheric than it was last year. Rich and ample on the palate, Flaccianello captures all of the best qualities of this radiant vintage. The blend of sites, all in higher altitude spots near the center of town, yields a gorgeous, riveting wine of the very highest level. Dense and brooding, with magnificent energy as well as nuance, the 2015 Flaccianello is positively stunning. 99/100 (07.2019) 

The 2013 Flaccianello della Pieve is a powerhouse. In this vintage, Flaccianello has all of its typical richness but also a good deal of freshness that will help it age. Interestingly, the stylistic difference between Flaccianello and Vigna del Sorbo is more accentuated in 2013 than in 2012. Deep, layered and unctuous, the 2013 offers plenty of blue and purplish-hued fruits, clove, lavender and new leather nuances, all supported by big, searing tannins that will require the better part of a decade to settle down. The 2013 is a magnificent Flaccianello with a bright, bright future. 97/100 (10.2016) 

This retrospective gave me the opportunity to taste the excellent 2015 vintage side by side with the highly anticipated 2016 vintage. These two years are famously in a tight race across Tuscany for supremacy. I'm ready to tip my hat at 2016. In comparison, the 2015 Flaccianello della Pieve is slightly broader in the shoulders and heavier in the gait. There is more meat on these bones, and the 2015 vintage presented vintners with near-perfect growing conditions in which one textbook part of the vegetative cycle transitioned directly to the next. The wine is dark, exuberant and profound, and the quality of the tannins is superb, fine and firm. One difference with the 2016 vintage is that the 2015 is a tad more accessible and ready. You can wait and cellar it for thirty years, or pop the cork sooner if you don't have the patience to wait. 98/100 (07.2019)

I'm hardly surprised to report that Fontodi's 2015 Flaccianello della Pieve is one of the best wines recorded in this report of new releases from Tuscany. This wine sits as tall and as proud as the Colosseum in Rome or the Pyramids of Giza in its undeniable glory and beauty. It would be impossible to exaggerate its many lasting attributes and qualities. Perhaps the most remarkable is the smooth and seamless nature of its many complicated moving parts. It produces abundant power, intensity and elegance as if this were the easiest accomplishment in the world. But we all know that's far from the truth. Despite the heat of the vintage, this wine is constructed with firm building blocks as if it were from a cooler year. That's the Panzano magic in a nutshell. This vintage is very young and tight, and you need to exercise patience to allow it enough time to evolve. 98/100 (10.2018)