Fontodi, Flaccianello delle Pieve, Colli della Toscana Centrale 2022

Another icon from Tuscany is the Fontodi 2022 Flaccianello della Pieve. This organic wine is beautiful, quite bold and thickly extracted. Across the board, these wines from the 2022 vintage made by Fontodi all show high alcohol and a rather robust character, and the same goes for the Flaccianello, whose alcohol content is 15%. This vintage is more accessible overall, with finely tuned tannins. This wine represents a selection of the best estate fruit at various elevations with both alberese limestone soils and galestro shale. Production is 60,000 bottles.

The 2022 Flaccianello della Pieve is a rather quiet wine in this vintage. The vineyard mix is a bit different than in the recent past, as hail damaged one of the three core vineyards Fontodi uses for Flaccianello. Instead, the winery used parcels across the street from the winery that were used for Flaccianello from 1981 to 2000, before they were replanted. Dark Sangiovese fruit, spice, new leather, menthol and incense are nicely laced together. Overall, the 2022 feels a bit lithe. I have seen Flaccianello blossom with time in bottle. That could very well be the case here. Sadly, production is down by 40%.