Sanguineto Rosso di Montepulciano '23

Poderi Sanguineto I & II is Dora Forsoni’s family estate in Montepulciano, in southern Tuscany. The property spans 50 hectares, though only six are planted to vine. The name “I & II” refers to the estate’s origins as a feudal farm once divided into eight sharecropping parcels; Sanguineto occupies parcels one and two.

Dora began working in the vineyards with her father in 1968, learning the old-fashioned way: by tending the family’s vines of Prugnolo Gentile, the local Montepulciano biotype of Sangiovese, along with Mammolo, Canaiolo, and Nero Toscano. The farming has always been organic in spirit and practice, with no chemicals used in the vineyards and the soils worked several times each year. For decades, the family sold most of its fruit in bulk, but in 1997 Dora ended that practice and began bottling the wines under the Sanguineto name.

What makes Dora’s work so compelling is both its simplicity and its conviction. She walks and works the vineyards every day, guided by experience, intuition, and a remarkably confident touch. In the cellar, she follows the idea of un’annata, uno vino, tre espressioni — one vintage, one wine, three expressions. As the wines evolve in their various vessels, Dora decides what will become Rosso di Montepulciano, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, and, in certain years, Vino Nobile Riserva. The wines are then aged respectively for one, two, and three years.

The Rosso di Montepulciano is composed primarily of Prugnolo Gentile, with Canaiolo Nero and Mammolo making up the balance. The grapes are harvested by hand, destemmed, and left largely as whole berries. Fermentation is spontaneous with native yeasts in concrete tanks, followed by roughly 10 days of maceration and a very gentle pressing. The wine then ages for one year in a mix of French and Slavonian oak botti.

Dora’s wines are not polished into anonymity. They are earthy, generous, and deeply expressive, with a rustic honesty that feels increasingly rare in Montepulciano today. This Rosso has plenty of dark cherry and red plum fruit, but also savory notes, firm structure, and the kind of old-school Tuscan character that makes it feel unmistakably tied to its place.

I highly recommend decanting this for an hour before serving. Drink it alongside a grilled porterhouse steak.