From the atlas
Fattoria Nittardi
At A Glance
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| Location | Località Nittardi, Castellina in Chianti, Tuscany |
| Appellation | Chianti Classico DOCG; Toscana IGT |
| Grape | Sangiovese (Chianti Classico); Cabernet Sauvignon (CAB) |
| Farming | Certified organic |
| Range | Chianti Classico, Casanuova di Nittardi Vigna Doghessa, Gran Selezione, CAB IGT Toscana |
| First Bottle | CAB IGT Toscana |
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.
Today Fattoria Nittardi is a certified-organic estate in the Chianti Classico DOCG, producing three Chianti Classico wines entirely from its own vineyards, with a varietal Cabernet Sauvignon under the Toscana IGT label as the fourth bottle. The Gran Selezione, first released from the 2020 vintage and sourced from a single vineyard, sits at the top of the range. Every bottle of Chianti Classico carries Sangiovese as the backbone grape, as the appellation requires. The estate has also built a sculpture garden and, every year since 1981, commissioned a different international artist to create the label and tissue-paper wrapping for its signature Chianti Classico bottling, Casanuova di Nittardi Vigna Doghessa.
Place
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.
The physical setting is classic Chianti Classico countryside: hillside vineyards intercut with olive groves, cypress lines marking property boundaries, and stone buildings that have been farmed for centuries. The Michelangelo provenance fits the landscape. Nittardi was once owned by Michelangelo Buonarroti, and the estate carries that history as an inherited fact rather than a marketing position.
Soil And Site
The estate buildings stand in the middle of its vineyards and olive groves, with a medieval stone house and tower at the centre. An independent 2012 profile described the property as a stone house surrounded by cypresses, vineyards, and olive groves, which remains the visible character of the site today. Vineyard area, vine ages, elevations, and parcel-level soil data are not published in confirmed sources. What the estate confirms is that all grapes for the Chianti Classico range are grown on its own certified-organic land, without bought-in fruit.
Story
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.
Peter Femfert's connection to contemporary art shaped the estate's art program. His Frankfurt gallery work gave him access to an international network of artists, and in 1981 he began commissioning a new artist each year to design the label and tissue-paper wrapping for Casanuova di Nittardi Vigna Doghessa. That project has continued without interruption for more than forty years, through vintage after vintage. The sculpture garden grew alongside it, from a personal collection into what the estate describes as a significant body of work.
The Gran Selezione tier arrived with the 2020 vintage, positioned above where the former Riserva had sat in the range. Its launch was deliberate: a single-vineyard wine made to the highest classification the appellation recognises, aged longer and selected more tightly than the Riserva it replaced. The 2021 vintage spent 24 months in oak before release.
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.
Gran Selezione ageing uses French and Austrian oak, though the barrel format for the Gran Selezione is not confirmed in published sources. The 2021 vintage saw 24 months in wood before release.
Wines
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.
The Gran Selezione sits at the top. Single-vineyard sourcing, a longer ageing minimum, and a higher formal threshold separate it from the Riserva tier it has replaced. The 2021 shows dark fruit, dried tobacco, and earthy depth, with oak integrated rather than dominant and tannins that carry enough grip to develop over several years.
CAB is a separate register entirely. A 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon under the Toscana IGT designation, it steps outside the Sangiovese-led appellation framework and uses the more permissive regional label to show what the estate's cellar does with a non-native variety. Cassis, blackcurrant, dark cherry, graphite, and cedar are its aromatic pillars. Tannins are polished and the acidity stays fresh.
In The Glass
Across the Chianti Classico range, the glass shows what Sangiovese does in this part of the zone: sour cherry, dried herbs, a faint leather note, and mouth-watering acidity. Tannins in the Annata are firm and fairly open; the Gran Selezione carries more grip and concentration, with dark fruit and tobacco on the nose and a longer, drier finish. The oak reads as background tone rather than flavour.
CAB is a different conversation. From the glass it opens with cassis and blackcurrant, then dark cherry and a mineral graphite note, with cedar and restrained oak behind. In the mouth the tannins are polished rather than grippy, the acidity provides cut and length, and the finish stretches well past the swallow. It sits closer to a classical Cabernet profile than to Tuscan Sangiovese, which is the point of the IGT designation: the label signals that the wine operates outside appellation rules.
A Bottle To Understand It
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. It is a single-variety wine from one estate, and the label says exactly that. Once you know how the cellar works from CAB, the Chianti Classico range makes more sense as the same hands working with a different grape and a different set of rules.
Anecdote
Michelangelo Buonarroti owned Nittardi before it was a ruin, before the Canali Femferts arrived, before anyone had thought to put a contemporary artist's drawing on a wine label. The story that attaches to his ownership is specific: he is said to have carried Nittardi wine as a gift when he travelled to Rome to visit the Pope. Whether a barrel went by mule cart or a flask was tucked into a saddlebag, the image is a specific one, Michelangelo standing at a papal audience with a bottle from his Tuscan property, the same hills that Peter and Stefania would buy as ruins five centuries later. The Chianti Classico Consortium records the connection plainly, and the estate does not enlarge on it. The wine he brought no longer exists. The land does.
Final Word
Nittardi is a small estate that has been doing two things consistently since 1981: farming its own land without synthetic chemistry and commissioning a new artist every year. Neither is a marketing convenience. The organic commitment covers every Chianti Classico vineyard on the property. The art program has now run for more than forty consecutive years. Both trace to the same decision Peter Femfert and Stefania Canali made when they arrived at a ruin and chose to rebuild it the way they wanted to live. The wine follows from that: honest Sangiovese from a Castellina hillside, a Gran Selezione that earns its place at the top of the range, and a Cabernet Sauvignon that shows what the cellar can do when it steps outside the appellation framework.
Sources
- https://nittardi.com/
- https://nittardi.com/art-at-nittardi/
- https://www.chianticlassico.com/en/estates/nittardi/
- https://www.bkwine.com/features/wine-producer-profiles/wine-art-nittardi-winery-tuscany/
- https://nittardi.com/cab/
- https://nittardi.com/wine-club-offers/nittardi-gran-selezione-2021/
- https://nittardi.com/nittardi-granselezione/
- https://nittardi.com/our-first-ever-gran-selezione-is-now-available/