2013 Castello di Fonterutoli Siepi

The strongest suit of this wine is its deep sense of integration and harmony. The Mazzei 2013 Siepi comes from a vintage that was not without its farming challenges, but that ultimately brought quality fruit into the winery. Yields were also up, and this vintage saw 30,000 bottles produced (or more than double the previous year). Another fun fact is that this vintage saw a short harvest window, with Merlot off the vines on September 11th followed by the Sangiovese just 17 days later. There is usually a longer gap between the two varieties. Siepi starts with soft fruit and delicate spice, and it shows an ever-fluid personality in the glass, slowly bringing to the nose a nice succession of background aromas, ranging from cassis to wild rose.

Alcohol: 14.29%. Total acidity: 6.88 g/l. Demanding growing season with 35% more precipitation than usual in the first seven months of the year so quite a bit of disease pressure. Good diurnal temperature variation from late July. Harvest: hand-picked from 11 September (Merlot), 28 September (Sangiovese). Fermentation temperature: 26–28 °C. Period of maceration: 14 days (Merlot), 18 days (Sangiovese). Ageing: 18 months in small French oak barrels (225 litre, 70% new). Bottling: September 2015. Production: 30,000 bottles. Dark crimson. Well-melded nose that's so luscious it almost smells like melted butter. The palate is a bit less unctuous with a dry finish and tastes like the ultimate food wine: claret build (no apparent excess of alcohol at all) but with a real Tuscan kick on the end. Very sappy and energetic. (JR)

Rich black fruit, lots of bitter black olive character. Very Tuscan – tough and chewy, but well balanced and capable of long age. Not elegant, but a well-built big-hitter. (RH)