Why it matters
The producer
In 1981, Peter Femfert and Stefania Canali arrived at a property in the hills between Florence and Siena and found the buildings in ruins. They bought it anyway. Peter, a German art dealer connected to a Frankfurt gallery, and Stefania, from Venice, had fallen in love with the land itself: a medieval stone house with a tower rising above cypresses, vineyards, and olive groves at Località Nittardi, near the village of Castellina in Chianti.
The Canali Femferts did not inherit Nittardi. They chose it, knowingly, in ruins. The reconstruction of the estate buildings took years, and the decision to farm organically followed from their approach to the land rather than from commercial calculation. Organic certification now covers every Chianti Classico vineyard on the property.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Chianti Classico is the historic heartland of Tuscan Sangiovese, the DOCG zone that runs south from the outskirts of Florence toward Siena along the ridge roads and hillside communes of the Apennine foothills. Castellina in Chianti, the nearest village to Nittardi, sits near the western edge of this zone, at elevations that slow ripening and hold acidity into harvest. The consequence for the label is meaningful: Chianti Classico DOCG requires Sangiovese at a minimum of 80 percent of the blend, with the appellation name on the front, and a classification system that distinguishes Annata, Riserva, and Gran Selezione by ageing requirements and vineyard origin. Gran Selezione, the highest tier, must come from a single vineyard or a selection of the estate's best parcels and spends a minimum of thirty months before release. Nittardi's Gran Selezione qualifies under the single-vineyard route.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
All vineyards supplying the Chianti Classico range are certified organic. The estate farms its own parcels without bought-in fruit, which means every Chianti Classico on the list traces directly to the hillside land at Località Nittardi.
The CAB is the most fully documented wine in the cellar. Cabernet Sauvignon ferments naturally in stainless steel tanks, with regular punch-downs and open pump-overs over two weeks. The maceration gives colour, tannin extraction, and the dark-fruit depth that marks the wine's aromatic core. After fermentation, the wine goes into 500-litre barrels, 10 percent of them new, for 16 months. The barrels are 500 litres, and 10 percent are new. The modest new-oak proportion keeps wood as a background element.
Wines to know
The range in view
Nittardi builds its range across two appellations. The Chianti Classico line, which accounts for three wines, runs from an Annata-level bottling up through Casanuova di Nittardi Vigna Doghessa and on to the Gran Selezione. All three are Sangiovese-led, as the DOCG requires, grown on the estate's own certified-organic parcels. Sangiovese at this latitude and elevation brings the sour-cherry and dried-herb character that defines classical Chianti Classico: medium body, firm tannin, and acidity that keeps the wine alive across a meal.
Casanuova di Nittardi Vigna Doghessa is the bottle that carries the annual artist commission. Each year a different international artist creates the label design and tissue-paper wrapping, making the bottle recognisable on the shelf as much for its jacket as for what is inside. It is a named Chianti Classico cuvée, sourced from a specific named site within the estate.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with CAB. It is a 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon made in Nittardi's cellar from the estate's own organic fruit, fermented naturally, macerated for two weeks with punch-downs and pump-overs, and aged 16 months in large-format barrels with only 10 percent new wood. The aromatic register is dark and precise: cassis, dark cherry, graphite, cedar, a note of tobacco. The palate is structured, with polished tannins and enough acidity to carry the wine across a meal or a few years in the cellar. At the same time it does not ask for any knowledge of Chianti Classico, Sangiovese, or appellation hierarchy to make sense.