Carpineta Fontalpino Do ut des Toscana 2019
95 Pts, Parker’s Wine Advocate – 94 Pts, James Suckling – 94 Pts, Wine Spectator
Get your friends together and blind taste this and you would be forgiven for mistaking this organic blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot for one of the great Super Tuscans from Bolgheri—something that goes in the hundreds. This 2019 vintage in particular is a dream come true. Sourced from the shadow of Montaperti hill, where Dante’s famous battle once colored the Arbia red, this cuvee stands out as one of the very best Quality-to-Price ratios in all of Tuscany, boasting a “beautiful sense of firmness and rich density” filled with “blackberry and mulberry, black olive, spice and toasted rye bread,” according to Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. This should easily cost double or triple its price. It’s on a very short list to be one of my wines of the year.
Original price was: $40.00.$27.50Current price is: $27.50.
Availability: In stock
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95 Points, Parker’s Wine Advocate
A blend of organic Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot, the Fattoria Carpineta Fontalpino 2019 Do Ut Des shows a beautiful sense of firmness and rich density. It amply wraps over the palate and begs to be served next to one of Tuscany’s air-dried T-bone steaks cooked rare. Blackberry and mulberry play a leading role, but the wine also shows a strong supporting cast of black olive, spice and toasted rye bread. Earthy mineral notes appear over a long finish. This vintage is excellent.
94 Points, Wine Spectator
Aromas and flavors of black currant, black cherry, blackberry, cedar, iron and tobacco are intense and wrapped in a cloak of vanilla and smoky oak. There are still assertive tannins, with the fruit portion echoing on the finish. Mellowing. Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Best from 2027 through 2040.
94 Points, James Suckling
Attractive notes of currants, black cherries, cocoa and hints of vanilla and dried tangerine peel. Polished and well composed, with a medium to full body and fine but firm, lightly chewy tannins. Bright and fresh. From organically grown grapes. Already attractive, but better in a year or two. Try after 2026.
Here’s what makes this one so special: “Do Ut Des” means “reciprocity” in local dialect, and it’s made by Gioia Cresti and her partner Carlo Ferrini. Together, the two are like the Favia and Erickson of Italy. Gioia Cresti is a viticulturist, farmer, sister, and daughter whose worked on the greatest vineyards in all of Italy. Carlo Ferrini is a ‘Winemaker of the Year’ award-winning star who also produces his own label in Montalcino that’s received numerous 100-point reviews. Together, the synergy they display from the vineyard to the cellar is what makes this project such a success and this blend so smooth and seamless.
If you were doing a blind tasting, you might first mistake this for one of the great Super Tuscans from Bolgheri, something with a price tag in the hundreds. To get something this delicious and age-worthy at today’s price is a rare feat. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate waxed poetically about a “beautiful sense of firmness and rich density” with notes of “black olive, spice and toasted rye bread.” Wine Spectator called out “intense” flavors “wrapped in a cloak of vanilla and smoky oak.”
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