Fontaleoni

Fontaleoni winery is a reality in one of the most interesting and historically rich areas of Tuscany. The area of San Gimignano represents a unique feature in the regional context. In a land famous worldwide for its great reds, San Gimignano is instead a denomination reserved for whites, made with the native grape variety Vernaccia, a true rarity in the Tuscan landscape and a true excellence at the national level. The estate was created in 1959 by Giovanni Troiani, who decided to leave his sharecropper job in Marche to move to Tuscany to build a new life. He was immediately fascinated by the beauty of the ancient medieval village and the countryside characterized by gentle hills and purchased a small farm to start a new activity.

As was customary in the 1950s and 60s, the estate was managed as a mixed agricultural business with crops of cereals, fruit trees, vines, and livestock farming. Only later did it specialize in viticulture, reorganizing the vineyard systems and planting the two typical grape varieties of the area. The Vernaccia di San Gimignano for the production of white wines and the Sangiovese for red wines. The real turning point, however, only occurs in the 1980s, when the son Franco, a great wine enthusiast, joins the company. The estate changes its characteristics, directing production towards the search for greater quality. The meticulous attention in the vineyard quickly leads to obtaining grapes of excellent qualitative level. It is precisely in those years that Fontaleoni begins to offer the first bottles of Chianti to the market.

Today, the property extends over a total of 50 hectares, of which 30 are dedicated to viticulture. The vineyards are mostly located in hilly areas, in the locality of Santa Maria, 8 kilometers from San Gimignano, with the exception of 5 hectares located in the locality of Le Fonti, right near the ancient walls of the village. The soils are medium-textured with presence of limestone, sand, and clay and rest on a substrate of volcanic tuff bedrock. The soil is well-draining and retains water deeply, thus avoiding water stress even in periods of drought. The climate is mild, influenced by breezes that rise inland from the Tyrrhenian Sea. The vines are managed according to the principles of organic farming, using only sulfur and copper, and all harvests are carried out manually.