Chianti Classico deep dive (15) Istine with Angela Fronti

Website: www.istine.it

Angela Fronti is the dynamic personality behind Istine, a Chianti Classico winery based in Radda. She has some spectacular vineyards, with 25 hectares under vine in different parcels, including a beautiful spot high up at 550 m where we had a closer look at the vines. The vines are surrounded by forests – here in Radda there’s around 80% forest and just 6% vineyards, which helps keep a healthy ecosystem.

Farming is organic, and it’s October, and Angela is just about to plant a mixed cover crop. She began bottling wines in 2012: her father sold wine in bulk. Now they don’t sell any bulk wine: they are producing everything and bottling everything from their vineyards.

Production level is around 100 000 bottles a year, including 11 000 Rosé, 55 000 Chianti Classico and 3000 each of the crus and riservas. During the first year of Covid (2019), Angela was very scared about selling all the wine, but the wines turned out very well and sold, and then have gone from 50 000 bottles to 100 000 bottles since then.

Angela worked in other wineries before making wine here. When she worked for others she couldn’t choose the élevage, but now she has her own winery, she says it’s her risk and she can experiment. Her family are very supportive, and she’s always looking to do something better and the vintages are all different. ‘If you do things always the same way you can’t interpret the vintage in the right way,’ she says. She loves whole cluster, and they make 1000 litres of wine this way, but she says it’s too invasive and stops the terroir expression. ‘It gives less identity to the wine.’

THE WINES  

Istine Rosato Toscana 2022 IGT
There is no tradition of making rosé wine so everyone makes their own style. Angela picks when the grapes have high acid and not so much sugar. Pick some bunches reducing the yields on the vines to allow the others to mature nicely, about 10 days in advance. They also use entire young blocks. 3 h of skin contact, then pressed to stainless steel for a low-temperature ferment. Juicy and linear with dried herbs and cherries. Dry with a nice acid line and a touch of orange peel, as well as lemon and pear fruit, with just a hint of negroni. 90/100

Istine Bianco Toscana 2022 IGT
Started making this in 2019. It’s a vineyard they renovated in Casanova Dell’Aia, and it was the first vineyard the family bought in 1982. White grapes had been interplanted in the vineyard, so when they replanted they put Trebbiano in. It’s hard to vinify Trebbiano because it can lose its acidity fast, and in the tank it tends to close down. This is a 50/50 Malvasia Bianca and Trebbiano, with three days skin contact, harvested together. Then fermented in Manetti amphora. This has lovely weight and texture with sweet pear and table grape fruit, as well as some white peach and fine spices. Textured with a lovely grainy quality. Really refined and appealing. 93/100

Istine Chianti Classico 2021
Comes from all the parcels, but with a big dollop of Radda fruit (80-85%). Limestone soils (albarese with some galestra). Aged for one year in large barrels, and Angela prefers the Austrian ones because she likes the wines very straight. Fresh, bright, pure and linear with nice acidity supporting fresh raspberry and red cherry fruit. Very fresh with good tannic structure sitting under the vibrant, juicy fruit. Lovely purity and freshness with lovely crunch. Quite primary and unfurled, but very pure with pleasure already.

Istine Chianti Classico Vigna Istine 2020
This is a project to show the territory says Angela of her cru wines. In 2021 they will be Gran Selezione. They are made from the top Sangiovese grapes from each parcel. 45 days maceration on skins. Istine is steep, 500 m, rocky limestone. Then the ageing in in 3000 litre Stockinger. Fresh, bright aromatic nose with red cherries and plums, as well as some cranberry. Bright, vivid and linear on the palate with juicy, fresh, grainy showing lovely acidity and pure, bright, focused red fruits. So pure and fine. 96/100

Istine Chianti Classico Vigna Istine 2021
Fresh, pure and linear with nice precision and focus. Still slightly taut and backward, but with lovely freshness and some mineral notes. Raspberry brightness with a bit of grip. Has lovely acidity which throws the fruit into focus. Finishes with a touch of iron. Give this one time. 95/100

Istine Chianti Classico Vigna Casanova Dell’Aia 2020
In Radda, facing south, limestone with clay. Nice density of red berry and cherry fruit with good structure and acidity, but also some generosity. Lively and bright with some grainy structure. Grippy and grainy, this is really stylish with lovely focus and precision, but also some depth. Serious. 95/100

Istine Chianti Classico Vigna Casanova Dell’Aia 2021
Some flesh here with sweet fruit. Focused and bright with nice juicy cherry and plum fruit, with nice flesh but also good acidity. Very fresh and focused, but with some richness to the fruit. Lovely. 95/100

Istine Chianti Classico Vigna Carvachione 2020
At 420 m, facing east, with sloping soils with albarese and galestro. Sappy, linear nose with some green hints as well as bright raspberries and cranberries. Very fine and linear on the palate with some sleek liqueur-like fruit as well as some fine spices and a mineral twist on the finish. Has interesting blood and mineral characters. 96/100

Istine Chianti Classico Vigna Carvachione 2021
Beautiful concentration here with a touch of flesh but also good acidity. Fine, linear and bright with nice juiciness but also some seriousness, showing iron and minerals on the finish, as well as a green sappy hint in the mix. Very fine. 96/100

Istine Chianti Classico Riserva Levigne 2020
Mix of the three single vineyards, looking for a wine with the best equilibrium of the vintage. After one year of ageing of single vineyards separately, this is blended and aged another year in large barrels. Fresh, bright and focused with firm tannins and good acidity complementing the cranberry, raspberry and plum fruit. Very fine and expressive with a linear quality and a great combination of savoury-edged fruit with structure and acidity. 94/100

Istine Merlot 550 2020 IGT Toscana
It’s next to the Istine vineyard Dense, vivid and grippy with incense, eucalyptus and balsamic notes adding a savoury exotic quality to the sweet red and black fruits. Primary, with good structure. Interesting expression of Merlot with a distinctive Tuscan imprint, finishing bright with high acidity. Grippy and backward, but with nice fruit. 92/100