Siepi is the ultimate proof that you can blend Sangiovese and Merlot without losing your Tuscan soul. The nose has an incredibly playful interplay between the two varieties. The Merlot provides a brooding, savory wave of dark chocolate, crushed blackberry, and roasted earth, but the Sangiovese cuts straight through it with a fiercely high-toned, “crunchy” core of dried blood orange peel, wild mint, and iron. It smells profoundly serious and firmly anchored to the dirt. You might expect a 50/50 blend to sit wide and plush across the mid-palate, but it drives straight down the center with a razor-sharp, vertical spine of acidity. A top Supertuscan offered at 50% off—what more could you ask for?
2017 Mazzei “Siepi” Toscana
96 PTS
— Orazio Campoli, September 2026
About the Producer
The Mazzei family has made wine at Castello di Fonterutoli in Castellina in Chianti since 1435, and it was an ancestor, Ser Lapo Mazzei, who wrote the first known document mentioning “Chianti,” in 1398. The estate combines centuries of tradition with modern technology; its gravity-flow cellar is an architectural landmark.
The Castello Fonterutoli Chianti Classico Gran Selezione comes from the estate’s oldest and highest vineyards around Castellina, where limestone — fairly rare in Chianti — gives depth and structure. Aged 18 months in French oak, it is bold and complex, with black cherry, violets, graphite and Mediterranean herbs. MIX 36 is the fruit of more than three decades of research: a blend of 36 different Sangiovese biotypes, and its 2015 was the last vintage before the wine took the Gran Selezione name.
Siepi, a 50/50 blend of Sangiovese and Merlot, is one of Italy’s original Super Tuscans and proof that the blend need not lose its Tuscan soul: the Merlot brings dark chocolate and blackberry, the Sangiovese a crunchy core of blood orange, wild mint and iron, all on a vertical spine of acidity.