Alessandro came to the vineyard barefoot and walked up and down the rows of decades-old vines with me, tasting grapes, munching and then spitting out the skin. It was mid-September, a few days before the harvest, and we were trying to decide which vines to clone. Over the course of the prior months, I had […]
The Best Sangiovese May Be A Forgotten One Read More »
How a Forgotten Bottle of 1978 Inspired a New Approach to Sangiovese Talk about an awkward moment. It was 2009, and I had just started my first consulting project for a Tuscan winery. The new owners wanted to overhaul production. Over lunch at their restaurant, we tasted through their estate’s wines—blends of Sangiovese and international
Sangiovese’s Signature Read More »
Tasting barrel after barrel of wine in the cellars of the Côte de Nuits in the late 2000s catalysed my understanding of wine. How could two barrels of Pinot Noir—sitting side by side, vinified the same way—taste so different? Were the differences due to the vineyards’ terroir or to the impact of the barrels themselves?
Is Barrel Aging Still the Gold Standard for Top Wines? Read More »
Yesterday, I went to pay for grapes I had bought during this year’s harvest—grapes that, in other years, I have made into some of my best wines. Driving home, winding down from the hilltop village, I passed other vineyards, olive orchards, fields sparkling in the sunlight. The scenery, though, did little to ease my disappointment.
Shedding Traditions for a Clearer Expression of Tuscany Read More »
Through Françoise, a geologist I worked with when I started Fanciulle, I met Rémy, the oenologist for some of the finest wine estates in the Côte d’Or and a rigorous, brilliant wine taster. He can, I have seen over the years, dissect a wine’s flavors, aromas or texture into its distinct components and tell you
Since the 2022 wines finished fermenting in October of that year, and I first tasted them, they have seemed different. As always, the grapes were destemmed and put into small tanks; during fermentation, the sugar in the grapes was consumed by the yeast on the skins and turned into alcohol. Then the wines were racked
The following is the first in an occasional series visiting Fanciulle wine in the homes of the people who drink it. Who: Caitlin Macy, sister of owner-winemaker Jem Macy Where: New York, USA Years Drinking Fanciulle: Since the first vintage in year 2019. In Italian, fanciulle means young girls or young ladies, a word that
A Glass at Home: Caitlin Macy Read More »
After much-needed spring rains, the threat of disease loomed over the early part of the growing season, requiring the judicious use of copper to protect the young leaves. In July, the weather settled into a stretch of dry, sunny days, culminating in perfect harvest conditions of bright, breezy days and cool nights. The grapes have
Highlights of Harvest 2023 Read More »
Excerpts from a recent interview with Jem Macy, Founder of and Winemaker at Fanciulle Vini WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND? I grew up in Groton, Massachusetts, a New England, apple-farming town northwest of Boston. I attended an all-girls day school, Nashoba Brooks, which, along with my parents’ innate feminism, provided the seeds of my entrepreneurial spirit.
Meet the Winemaker Read More »
Alessandro came to the vineyard barefoot and walked up and down the rows of decades-old vines with me, tasting grapes the way the pros do, munching and then spitting out the skin. It was mid-September, a few days before the harvest, and we were trying to decide which vines to clone based on how evenly
