La Fornace is an estate winery in Montalcino in Tuscany, Italy. Its main wines are Sant’Antimo Rosso DOC, Rosso di Montalcino DOC and Brunello di Montalcino DOCG.
Owner: Fabio Giannetti. He took over from his parents in 1998.
Background: The name La Fornace or ‘furnace’ dates from 1490, when it was founded as a brick kiln. Fabio Giannettii’s grandfather Joseph bought the furnace in 1964 after a life as a sharecropper of the church and many sacrifices. At first they were only 2ha of land with 0.5ha of vines. Grandfather Joseph came from generations of farmers and producers of wine and oil, but as they did in those days small producers did not bottles their own wine, but sold it to the larger wineries. In 1975, the Franco father and mother Germana have had the opportunity to buy more land near where they implanted other vineyards, but only in 1987 with the Rosso di Montalcino and Brunello di Montalcino 1988, they started
Staff: Consultant oenologist: Federico Donini.
Estate vineyards: 7ha of land of which 4.5ha for Rosso and Brunello (about 18,000 bottles in total) and 2ha of olives. NE of the town. 400 metres. Sand (plateau) and (I think) crete. Grassed since 2004 (indigenous grass) all year long. Use a subsoiler. 4,000-4,5000 vines/ha.
Sales: At the Anteprima 2014 Giannetti told me the main markets for the Rosso di Montalcino were Russia and Australia and the USA for Brunello.
Winemaking: From 2011 a new sorting system was introduced.
Red wines
Rosso di Montalcino DOC, La Fornace: 2011 4,000 bottles. Steel, then 18hl botti. Bright modern style, nice weight (Anteprima 2014). | 2013 8,500 bottles. | 2014 10hl litre oak [sic]. Nice sweet fruit, very very juicy modern red cherry (Anteprima 2016.
Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, La Fornace: 2000 High tone mint and chocolate. Acetaldehyde, lacks a bit of Sangiovese-ness (Anteprima 2005). | 2009 7,000 bottles. Lighter weight, more ethereal, compared to the Rosso 2012 but more sweetness and complexity too, from older vines, Fabio Giannetti told me (Anteprima 2014). | 2010 7,000 bottles. Sweet fruit, simple, nice weight, ripe and clear, no alcohol burn (Anteprima 2015). | 2011 10-32hl oak [sic]. Bit extracted and modern at (Anteprima 2016.
Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Riserva, La Fornace: From the oldest vines = small bunches. | 2006 Aged in French oak barrels. | 2008 4,000 bottles. French oak barrels have made this a bit oaky and tight (Anteprima 2014). | 2008 Bright fruit with new oak at the Consorzio Tues 27th May 2014 with Ian d’Agata and others. | 2010 4 years in oak from 3 coopers, barrels and tonneaux. Quite oaky and sticky at (Anteprima 2016.
Brunello di Montalcino DOCG: 2014 Fairly robust in terms of the density of fruit, on the redder rather than darker spectrum, a little drying as the oak is not entirely integrated just yet but a decent effort for drinking at around 5-8 years (Anteprima 2019).
Contact
Az Ag La Fornace di Giannetti Fabio
Podere La Fornace, 154
I-53024 Montalcino (SI = Siena), Italy
Tel+39 0577.848465
www.agricola-lafornace.it
Facebook brunellolafornace Twitter @la_fornace_wine
GPS N 43º 046963 E 11º 515181