Fontana Blanc 2021

Fontana Blanc 2021

La Vinicola di Antonio Gismondi

On the nose, white flowers, exotic fruits, Mediterranean plants, garrigue, and maquis: Fontana is a fragrant, savory, and generous white wine. The retro-olfaction is very fruity. Opulent and powerful, this wine is known as a "falanghina beneventano," or a falanghina from Benevento. This means that it is produced in Benevento from the falanghina grape, a very old local variety that, in ancient times, formed the basis of the famous Falerna cru (falernum), then considered top-of-the-range. Fontana is obtained by direct pressing with fermentation in stainless steel vats. Round, low in acidity, very aromatic, with a lot of sweetness and opulence on the finish, it offers good aging qualities. This wine can be drunk now, but it will also be able to keep for a long time.

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The azienda of Antonio and Anabel Gismondi is located in Cerreto Sanita, in the Benevento region of Campania. A microclimate gives this area almost continental accents: the humid winds coming from the Tyrrhenian Sea collide with the first ramparts of the Apennine chain, causing condensation in the air and a drop in temperatures, which are significantly cooler and more humid than on the coast. If we add a phenomenon of thermal inversion between day and night frequent in the Apennine climate, the freshness of the wines of the Antonio Gismondi estate is nothing mysterious in this southern Italy, which is nevertheless known for its very hot climate. The estate is family-run: for generations, the Gismondi family has cultivated vines and made wine using the most traditional and natural methods, to which biodynamic techniques are added. For a long time, of the fifteen tons of grapes produced each year, one ton was reserved for on-site vinification for family consumption, the rest going to the local wine cooperative. It was the meeting with Massimo Marchiori and Antonella de Partida Creus [link] that decided Antonio and his wife Anabel to start producing natural wines at home from the entire harvest. The two-hectare vineyard is located between 350 and 380 meters above sea level, on clay, loam, and stony soils, with two-thirds facing south, planted with vines around six years old. The rest faces southwest and corresponds to the Pietre and Cerreto cuvées, with vines thirty years old. The grape varieties are Merlot, Freisa and Sangiovese for the reds, and Falanghina and Malvasia di Candia for the whites.