Istine

Sangiovese kept in view

Sangiovese sets the measure before Angela Fronti, winemaker at Istine in Radda in Chianti, decides what the cellar should add. The grape is the constant here, not a category to be dressed up, and Fronti’s own language is plain: “Sangiovese is wild. It is a very honest grape.” That sentence fits the estate’s position in the hills above Radda, where the family moved from agricultural services into vineyard ownership before bottling its first wine from the 2009 harvest. Bruno Fronti began the family’s agricultural work in 1959; Fabio and Stefano Fronti expanded it, and the first hectares came in 1982. Angela Fronti brought a technical base from the University of Florence and, since 2009, has worked at this station with Sangiovese as the reference for texture, freshness, length, and restraint. The family roots matter because Istine did not begin as a label looking for a place. It came out of land work, parcel by parcel, then into estate bottling. In Fronti’s hands, that history reads through a disciplined cellar rather than through ornament.

Concrete, altitude, and long skins

Istine works about 20 hectares of vineyards, mostly in Radda in Chianti and also in Gaiole in Chianti, with Sangiovese planted across separate parcels rather than gathered into one block. The sites share altitude and rocky soils, with Galestro and Alberese carrying much of the estate’s argument for freshness and structure. Vigna Istine sits between Radda and Castellina at 480–550 meters, around 5 hectares with northwest exposure, marly limestones, skeleton, and some quartz. Vigna Casanova dell’Aia lies near Radda at about 500 meters, 4.5 hectares with south exposure and clay. Vigna Cavarchione, in Vertine near Gaiole, spans about 6 hectares at 430 meters, east and southeast exposed, on Galestro-dominant rocky soils. Planting density is listed at 5,000 vines per hectare. Harvest for the Chianti Classico comes in mid to late October, a consequence of altitude. Fermentation takes place in concrete tanks with indigenous yeasts, maceration can run up to 45 days, and aging follows in 10–20 hL barrels for about a year before a large-pore filtration.

The cellar above Radda

The room around the work is quiet in the way a hilltop winery can be quiet, with stone, woods, and vineyard slopes doing more than decoration. Istine’s new stone cellar and tasting room sit between Radda and Castellina, surrounded by high-altitude vineyards and views toward Radda and Panzano. The place is intimate rather than performative: concrete tanks, large barrels, and the sequence of parcels keep attention on origin. The cellar’s discipline is also negative space. No foreign grapes enter the Chianti Classico, and no French oak is used for that wine. Fronti’s line, “Our generation is really sensitive to Sangiovese. We are Sangiovese proud,” lands here as a cellar decision, not a slogan.

Three vineyard names, one grammar

The estate’s single-vineyard work gives the place its clearest future tense without needing to announce one. Beginning with the 2022 vintage, Fronti started bottling the single-vineyard expressions as Gran Selezione, bringing Vigna Istine, Casanova dell’Aia, and Cavarchione into sharper relief within Chianti Classico DOCG. The core language remains Sangiovese, but the grammar changes with exposure, soil, and altitude. The bench-side fact of the estate is this: Vigna Istine, Vigna Casanova dell’Aia, and Vigna Cavarchione are not names for a range; they are the parcels Angela Fronti keeps separate in the glass.