Mazzei Fonterutoli Phillip Toscana 2021

When you talk Italy’s most important wine families of all time, you better have Mazzei at the top of that list.

The Mazzei family has been making wine in Fonterutoli in the heart of Chianti Classico since 1435. Six hundred years. Twenty-five generations. That’s not just a winemaking tradition. That’s a dynasty unlike almost anything else in the wine world.

But here’s the story that I think makes this wine truly special: Philip Mazzei, an 18th century ancestor of the family, was a close personal friend of Thomas Jefferson. Their friendship and correspondence so deeply influenced Jefferson that the famous doctrine “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence traces directly back to Philip Mazzei’s belief that “all men are by nature equally free and independent.” An Italian wine family that helped shape the founding document of the United States?!? You simply can’t make that up!