Siepi, Castello di Fonterutolli, 1997

Siepi, owned by Mazzei family since 1435, has always been a model farm, still managed today with the same kind of respect. A unique location, a special microclimate, the foresight in the early 1980s to plant Merlot as the ideal grape to complement Sangiovese in a very particular "terroir" produce a wine which is perfectly balanced between elegance, power and complexity.
 
Siepi dates back to just under six hundred years ago, when the Siepi and Fonterutoli lands were inherited by the Mazzei family in 1435. A document in the family archives in Fonterutoli lists Siepi among the assets belonging to Madonna Smeralda Mazzei, describing it as "a piece of land adjacent to the house, with olive trees, vines and oaks...", making it unquestionably one of the oldest recorded vineyards in Italy. Over the centuries Siepi began to be celebrated for the quality of its Sangiovese, to the point where numerous wine-growers floeked to the vineyards from all over Tuscany to beg for cuttings to take home and graft onto their owne vines. Siepi has always produced wines of superior structure and sophisticated elegance. The huge job of massal selection, that allows the Castello di Fonterutoli today to boast an unparalleled viticultural heritage, began in the Siepi vineyard.