Anteprime di Toscana 2019 report: Chianti Classico

Tasting notes and reviews on 125 sangiovese at the 2019 Chianti Classico Collection

by Michael Godel

#CCC2019

Sangiovese and the Black Rooster. The grape and the symbolic trademark are the inseparable and inextricable nexus of Chianti Classico. The Gallo Nero brands each bottle of sangiovese with a seal to guarantee the exacting territorial source of the contents inside, on the neck or the back label, for a conceit of quality. If the rooster is not there, it can’t be Chianti Classico. All three levels of DOCG classification are rubber stamped; Chianti Classico, Chianti Classico Riserva and Chianti Classico Gran Selezione. Deconstructed deeper there are San Casciano in Val di Pesa, Radda in Chianti, Poggibonsi, Greve in Chianti, Gaiole in Chianti, Castellina in Chianti, Castelnuovo Berardenga and the freshly renamed commune of Barberino Tavernelle. Deeper still there are frazioni; Panzano, Lamole and Montefioralle (Greve), Monti (Gaiole), San Donato in Poggio and Mercatale in Val di Pesa (San Casciano) and many more. These names grace some examples and you can expect more and more to join the menzione geografica wave.

Putting my money on @beck to pair @johnszabo with #chianticlassico

Quick Links:

In Ontario Market Chianti Classico

Chianti Classico DOCG 2017
Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2016
Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2016
Chianti Classico DOCG 2015
Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2015
Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2015

Not currently in Ontario market Chianti Classico

Chianti Classico DOCG 2017
Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2016
Chianti Classico DOCG 2015
Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2015
Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2015

Related – John Szabo’s Chianti Classico Collection 2019 Report

The preview or anteprima tasting of current vintage releases known as the Chianti Classico Collection took place on February 11th and 12th at Stazione Leopolda in Firenze. Upwards of 200 producers were on hand to introduce their most recent (or imminent to be released) Annata, Riserva and Gran Selezione. Journalists from all over the world were present, including myself and WineAlign’s John Szabo M.S. Those who are commensurate with the Tuscan territory’s landscape, people, food and wines fondly remember the essential and tireless work lent to Chianti Classico matters by long-time friend and Consorzio past President Sergio Zingarelli of Rocca delle Macìe. In 2019 the focus is on where the territory will go, with the future squarely, capably and thankfully in the hands of the incumbent President, Fontodi’s Giovanni Manetti. It would be provocation and a challenge to express the sentiment any clearer. For Chianti Classico the future looks bright and so very sangiovese.

When I met with Manetti in both September and November of 2018 he had that look, the one of serious concentration mixed with great hope. Manetti told me that Chianti Classico is home to “one of the best red wines from all over the world, deserving of space in place with the best. I find great harmony in the wines.” His words and the things I myself have seen, nosed, tasted, felt and experienced over seven trips and 76 estate visits spread across 34 latter months have led to some serious genuflection. The important question is contemplated again and with great sincerity. Is Chianti Classico the most important red wine from Italy?

Which way with the Gallo Nero?

The sangiovese raised in Chianti Classico must and should not be assessed without considering what lays beneath the ground in conjunction with the people who work the vineyards. It was a discussion with Principe Corsini/Le Corti’s Duccio Corisini in which he mentioned the term genius loci that led me to regard the Chianti Classico Climat concept equivalence called acclimazione sottosuolo. Both are a matter of agriculturalists interacting with the stratified Chianti Classico layers beneath the vines. Four major types of mineral soils are present, prevalent and essential to how, why and where sangiovese acts and thrives in the territory.

Alberese (calcareous limestone), Galestro (schisty marl), Pietraforte (purple-brown shale) and Macigno (sandstone) fix and demonstrate the sub-soils but they are not the only significant rocks that contribute to regional character. River stones and marine fossil shells are also found in various vineyards and yet it is simply impossible to draw geological and geographical lines that explain exactly which soils exist and where. The master mapmaker himself Alessandro Masnaghetti has tried and while his rendering is the most accurate and complete for Chianti Classico even he has conceded that it is the most complex weave in all of Italy. Here is the rub and the essence of Chianti Classico’s set of exemptions and eccentricities. The complexity of soils results in the multiplicity of its sangiovese.

There’s 32 kilometres to Lamole, we’ve got a full tank of gas, a six pack of Chianti Classico, it’s dark out, and we’re wearing sunglasses.

In advance of February’s #CCC2019 I published tasting notes and reviews for all the wines I assessed at Chianti Classico estates in the Autumn of 2018.

Related – Chianti Classico Fall 2018: September and November, 25 estates, 150 wines reviewed in 18,000 words

Those September and November 2018 visits to 25 properties were my pre-anteprima to the February 2019 anteprima at the Chianti Classico Collection. In addition to the reviews I also dropped two posts, one that appeared on the Chianti Classico website so succinctly translated into Italian by the Consorzio del Vino Chianti Classico’s Silvia Fiorentini and Caterina Mori. This was no simple or easy exercise for them as any of you who know the meandering style of my prose would guess. The second was in English, as I had originally composed.

Related – as seen in Chianti Classico Magazine, translated into Italian – Il sogno Canadese del Chianti Classico abbraccia il più nobile dei Sangiovese Italiani

Related – Chianti Classico’s Canadian dream

Chianti Classico

What did we learn from this most recent Chianti Classico Collection? For one thing we remarked upon the unprecedented level of attendance. The Collection is divided into two rooms, each a football pitch in length, one with the producer stands and the other with tables set for journalists to taste at the hands of a service dutifully provided by the hardest working Sommeliers in the business. There was this non-stop buzz and producers pouring to throngs lined up three or four deep. The Collection also marked the moment when the newest Chianti Classico ambassador award was honoured to none other than Decanter’s long-standing consultant editor and author of Wine – A Way of Life, Steven Spurrier. Spurrier joins the 2018 list and inaugural first five CC ambasciatori; Jeffrey Porter, Michaela Morris, Massimo Castellani, Isao Miyajima and…Godello.

In spite of the very hot growing season yet another successful vintage was noted from the small number of 2017 sangiovese poured, in particular those showing great freshness with help from communes and vineyards blessed of higher altitudes. The real focus at #CCC2019 was on the 2016 Annata, a vintage at once normal and then exceptionally generous to show the exponential, across the board increase in quality and ever-evolving multiplicity of the territory’s sangiovese.

Lamole, Greve in Chianti

So what will 2019 bring? Will it usher in a new era of Chianti Classico bottles noted by villages and crus on the labels? Will sangiovese long designated IGT come back to the appellation? Will Gran Selezione gain further ground and find itself endeared by the hearts of more women and men? Will the category seek 100 per cent sangiovese status? One thing is certain and that is Canada’s connection and bond to the territory will only grow stronger. When we convene at the end of 2019 the sales figures will prove that the process is moving in the right direction.

As you will note from the following tasting notes/wine reviews the number of Chianti Classico I rated 90 points or higher are the most I’ve ever awarded above that arbitrary threshold. Not that I take much stock in the 100-point system, or any numerical substantiation for that matter, but in the context of what consumers want and how they make purchasing decisions, these scores show just how many Chianti Classico are worth buying, drinking and adding to the cellar.

Ontario in market Chianti Classico DOCG

These are the wines from producers with importation agency representation in Ontario available for purchase either through LCBO channels (LCBO General List, VINTAGES, Classics Catalogue, VINTAGES Shop-Online, or Destination Store) or through case purchases in the LCBO-Agent Consignment program. The list does not include producers’ wines represented in Ontario that are either brought in periodically through Private Order or have not yet been imported at all.

Chianti Classico DOCG 2017:

92 I Fabbri Chianti Classico DOCG Lamole Olinto Grassie E Figlio 2017
“A true expression of this terroir,” says Susanna Grassi, from the organic vineyards, and the tiniest (3,000) bottles of production. At altitudes as high as any in Chiasnti Classico and from the warmest of vintages, the fresh factor is as high as there will be. The fruit goes beyond cherry, into what careens like raspberry and the savoury aspect is almost sweet, but not. Aged in concrete and just so pleasurable meets territorial. Exactitude for Lamole. Drink 2019-2024. Tasted February 2019

92 Volpaia Chianti Classico DOCG 2017
Pretty taut for Volpaia though truth be told this Radda sangiovese always requires some time. Fullness of fruit and equally supportive acidity meets the texture of altitude and the advantage of acumen. There are layers here that many ‘17s will just not have, exhibit or develop. A tour de vintage force really. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted February 2019

92 Castello Di Ama Chianti Classico DOCG Ama 2017
Aromatic freshness never had it this way and the flowers are in full bloom. It’s both violet and rose but more than that, an installation as a late summer/early fall garden having been respectfully groomed. The palate does nothing to change your mind because the texture and quelling constitution are almost hypnotic, capturing, spellbinding even. Acids are fine and timing even better. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted February 2019

91 Rocca Di Montegrossi Chianti Classico DOCG 2017
Monti in Chianti is a special tour de force location for grooming sangiovese and the vintage takes this terroir for a real spin. The Galestro rocks heated up in a way they had not recently been accustomed to doing, having received so much intense sun and you can feel the accumulation in this 2017 Annata. The fruit is particularly sweet-scented and richly developed. It needs little settling time and with acids not overly demanding I would suggest early enjoyment. Drink 2020-2023. Tasted February 2019

90 Bibbiano Chianti Classico DOCG 2017
Scintillant this ’17 fresh-maker from i Marrochezi Marzi at Bibbiano, lightning red fruit of clarity, transparency and pulse. High-toned early, out of the gate and surprisingly without foible despite the ripeness and while concentrated, not excitedly so. Well done Tommaso, really well done. Drink 2019-2023. Tasted February 2019

89 Castello Di Fonterutoli Chianti Classico DOCG Fonterutoli 2017
A poster child for 2017, ripeness developed without trepidation, berries small and bursting with tart fruit, cherries on high and acidity wound so very tight. Some quality tannins, sweet and savoury, liquid chalky and always intense. All that said, try and find a better Tuscan cuisine matching early drinking Annata. It’s exactly that, to be sure. Drink 2019-2021. Tasted February 2019

89 Carpineto Chianti Classico DOCG 2017
Tough reductive nut to crack though a swirl, some agitation and air releases some classic Greve in Chianti Carpineto aromatics. Chewy sangiovese, after that initial rock solid wall broken through and full of rendered fruit, some leathery, very cherry and quick to speak. Such a mouthful with bones and a verdant streak run right through. Drink 2019-2022. Tasted February 2019

Chianti Classico DOCG 2016:

93 Villa Di Geggiano Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Sometimes there’s a sangiovese that’s really quite perfect for its place and time. In Geggiano’s case their land is a highly specific micro-climate in as far as the crow flies close to Siena at the western edge of Castelnuovo Berardenga. With terrific 2016 in pocket it adds up to immediate gratification giving way in credence to structural organization. This is the 2019 find from Annata so many of you will have been looking and waiting for. Precise and focused are certainties though it is the way its silky texture slides down and its fine tannins only limelight the layers the pleasure along that ride. Great work from field to table from the brothers Boscu Bandinelli Bianchi. Drink 2022-2033. Tasted February 2019

93 Fontodi Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
There are so many attributable aspects at play upon arrival at 2016 for Fontodi. Tasting three times in 2018 with Giovanni Manneti lent much discussion to the anticipation of this vintage even though it hot not yet been poured. The newer vineyards have entered a new period of maturity, coupled with the older Conca d’Oro vines and in the breathing of 2016 all adds up to a pinnacle of sorts. This is an uncompromising Annata of fruit, acidity, oh acidity and all around structure. It’s actually a bit chalky at this stage and the finest tannins still dominate the scene. Will be one for the ages. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted February 2019

93 Fontodi Chianti Classico DOCG Filetta Di Lamole 2016
Once again Lamole both astonishes and confounds. It’s make-up, constitution and display are unlike any other in Chianti Classico. It’s both liquid lava flowing and petrified, salumi cured and fresh as just picked red fruit. It’s quite a scene this Fontodi from land occupied by cousins to Giovanni Manetti, sangiovese that is chewy but linear, chalky while viscous, savoury but far from herbal. It’s the umami of Chianti Classico sangiovese I suppose. It’s so singular and needs to be investigated, nosed and tasted, again and again. Drink 2022-2029. Tasted February 2019

92 Isole E Olena Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Was finally bottled in July, to be released in February. “I like 2016, it’s a very different vintage.” As usual there is 15 per cent canaiolo mixed in. Why Canaiolo? “Because it’s from here. And it’s a late ripening variety like sangiovese, and also not heavy and jammy like merlot.” Canaiolo is like sangiovese in that it must be selected and used in very particular ways. Paolo’s is actually a darker depth of fruit from 2016 while the spice is so much more sophisticated. There is so much wisdom now, more than even before and a calm, settling depth about this wine. Last tasted November 2018 and February 2019.

Chianti Classico 2016 is composed of 80 per cent sangiovese, (15) canaiolo and (5) syrah, which since the 1980s has always held a spot, in fact it may have been as much as 10 two plus decades ago. Paolo de Marchi explains.”Syrah in my opinion, was really about thinking, about blending in an earlier ripening variety.” It also added colour, not for quality necessarily, but for pleasure. “If I were a consultant I don’t think I would recommend to plant it anymore.” But Paolo loves it, its bright acidity and lower pH, and loves the warmth. You can feel the liquid peppery hug from the combination of canaiolo and syrah in the constitution of this CC and now a new texture evolved from a traditional one, clearly passed on through generations. It is spoken in the clarity of this 2016, but it has taken decades to arrive here. Finessed, soft tannins and an effulgent acidity wrap fruit chewy and yet very crisp. Singular again and alone but quicker to please, at least for now. Perhaps it too will shut down in 2019. Perhaps not. Drink 2019-2028. Tasted February 2018.

92 Il Molino Di Grace Chianti Classico DOCG Solosangiovese 2016
”I think it’s a very good vintage,” announces Iacopo Morganti and that is all you really need to know, though take the time to glide along and feel the in synch moving parts. This is essential and partisan to gain an understanding ingrained of deepest knowing. There is something about this house style, this estate gathering and this layering of no-proviso, 100 per cent sangiovese. It walks you down all the way to Rimocine, down to the bottom of the Grace vinyards, looking up at San Francesco and the vines all around. This transports you to a place. Isn’t that what you want? That and great fruit, acids and fine tannin. Southeast Panzano sangiovese incarnate. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted February 2019

92 Colle Bereto Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
So accomplished, respectful and purposed. Knowable, knowledgeable and guaranteed to educate on the merits of growing, picking and sorting perfect fruit. The furthest from rustic that you will find or know. Dark fruit,. succulent acids and some of Radda in Chianti’s finest tannins. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted February 2019

92 Le Fonti Di Panzano Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Officially still a tank sample but it is a finished wine, just awaiting DOCG approval. Very firm and juicy, replete with the classic Le Fonti aromatic profile, of salumi, fennel, herbs and salty savour. Fruit, acidity, structure all there in fineness and Panzano culpability. Needs a year to come together, at least, for sure. Essentially 90 per cent sangiovese give or take a point or two with merlot and cabernet sauvignon. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted February 2019

91 I Fabbri Chianti Classico DOCG Lamole Olinto Grassie E Figlio 2016
From a normal vintage really, warm in Spring, hot in summer and back down to pleasant in the fall. A phenolic journey just right for Lamole, More savour, in fennel and gariga than ‘7, surely not as juicy sweet. Still so mouth watering in a way that most sangiovese doesn’t normally accede. This really sparks the taste buds and livens up the energy required to come back again and again. Succulence through acidity assured. Really proper. Drink 2019-2024. Tasted February 2019

91 Barone Ricasoli Chianti Classico DOCG Brolio Bettino 2016
There is no other name in Chianti Classico that speaks to tradition, formula and success like Bettino. Bettino ’16 is a clarity that is Ricasoli. Sits up at the peak of generosity at a vortex where the fine history of a terroirist’s prayers of intercession come together. As one voice they speak of acidity and structure, brought in to meet, engage and commune at a masterly rendered vanishing point. It’s a rich one Mr. Ricasoli, but one that can be shared and enjoyed by many in the congregation. Drink 2021-2026. Tasted February 2019

90 Querciabella Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
On the ripest side of 2016 life, Querciabella’s Annata is all in, developed, deep and pure. The fruit already there, unencumbered by holds barred and of a picking that pushes the envelop to gratify at the highest level. There’s nothing stopping the early enjoyment and while the tannins are anything but astringent they are there, albeit sweet and fine. Drink 2020-2023. Tasted February 2019

90 Luiano Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Quite the extracted and pressed Annata of sangiovese florals and liquor so dark cherry and even a note of Cassis. A bit of cabernet methinks, along with warmth, a big San Casciano bear hug and all you could want from a wine meant to offer up some love. XOXO for sure. Last tasted February 2019

While 2014 showed a winemaker’s ability to survive and ultimately thrive in spite of a great challenge and 2015 proved a different sort of sangiovese mettle, 2016 is more accented and accentuated. The tobacco mid-point on a crunchy mid-palate moves away from gelée and into gravelly pronouncements. Though only in bottle a few days you can’t help but feel the power, grit and structure from this youthful 2016. It’s so very primary and needs to be heard but I’ve asked for a rain-check, looking forward to a re-visit in late ’18 or early ’19. Drink 2019-2023. Tasted February 2018

89 Casa Al Vento Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
‘Tis a savoury and yet also rich Chianti Classico, pretty much what you’d want and expect from Gaiole in Chianti. At present it’s found somewhat in a shell with inherent structure from what seems like a pretty solid variegate of soil. You can sense Alberese, Galestro and clayey-marl in the layers of fruit and the blocks that stack one upon the other. An unmistakeable sangiovese albeit well-extracted and very modern. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted February 2019

89 Ruffino Chianti Classico DOCG Santedame 2016
Santedame is quite traditional Chianti Classico, straight ahead with tart red fruit, a tad sour-edged and one of the keepers of the words. Classico, as in what came before and needs to continue, plus Chianti, place in a territory where things are always what they are. Don’t expect much change from this wine. It is loyal to its lineage and proper. It’s also really well made in a very good vintage. Drink 2020-2024. Tasted February 2019

89 Villa Trasqua Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Trasqua’s Annata comes from a special sway of land, from a valley floor sweeping over gentle hills to create sangiovese of ease and drink ability. You can basically back up the truck for this one without needing to wait or expect later miracles. That said the acidity and tannin are fine, present and accounted for, so all the boxes are checked. Drink 2019-2023. Tasted February 2019

89 Vicchiomaggio Chianti Classico DOCG San Jacopo 2016
A varietal sangiovese with full fruit freshness intentions though there is some sweet herbal aspects to go along. Quite fresh and youthful with minor tannic structure. Don’t lose these in the cellar. They are ready whenever you are. Last tasted February 2019

A syrup quells and wells on the nose in Vicchiomaggio’s Greve drawn San Jacopo, like an anaesthetic offering temporary numbing before the scents of fennel and baking spices shake you clear. Here the vintage is spoken early and with weight, density and deep impression. Everything fires on quick cylinders; fruit, wood spice, smoulder and verdant savour. It’s all in and immediate. Drink 2018-2021. Tasted February 2018

88 Cantalici Baruffo Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Quite a barrel affected Annata with a richness of fruit that can handle the toasty wood and carry forward with expressive character, along with quite alimentary tannin. It’s not so much an older schooled Chianti Classico as much as it’s one of swagger, ambition and going hard for the vintage. Drink 2020-2025. Tasted February 2019

87 Borgo Scopeto Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Very getable 2016 sangiovese straight shooter with a glass full of cherries and quick to the point acids. Zero tannin means drink this as young as is humanly possible and let everyone enjoy the wholly ubiquitous, international and easy to appreciate style. Drink 2019-2020. Tasted February 2019

Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2016:

93 Villa Le Corti Principe Corsini Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Cortevecchia 2016

A river of stones up on the Corsini hill provide the elemental fodder to generate vine health in a territory where altitude and exposure are everything. At least in the case of Cortevecchia. The richness of savoury edged cherries meets very fine tannin and a princely cohort of conscious movement. The old court is the wine for the decade at this very particular vantage place and place, in Riserva form. Drink 2021-2027. Tasted February 2019

93 Il Molino Di Grace Riserva Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Welcome to the new world Il Molino di Grace order. Here along, after and in addition to the Annata that changes everything is a crunchy and chewy Riserva of pure, laser focus. An extension of Annata with deeper fruit and confidently brighter than most Riserva. The selection is not merely impressive, it’s necessary. The opening farewell is just the beginning of the end. The fruit sits way up on high, on a hill where acidity and tannin live intertwined, transparent and monumental. Sangiovese on its own in Riserva might need help, a little bit of support to elevate and celebrate a little bit of everything. Not this IMG. Solo suffices with ease. It’s already got a little bit of everything. Marks the first of more steps to come for an estate ready to climb into a highest Chianti Classico echelon where it wants, needs and deserves to be. Drink 2021-2029. Tasted February 2019

92 Bibbiano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2016
Bibbiano’s ’16 wears a robe of wood and wears it well. There are notes expected in lavender, vanilla, graphite and syrupy berries but all swim together in the same and forthright direction. As with the pervasive Bibbiano oeuvre there’s time ahead before learning will push forward to allow this great vintage fruit to poke through as sunlight through the trees. Please, I implore you to wait for that glorious moment. Drink 2022-2027. Tasted February 2019

92 Dievole Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Novecento 2016
A highly focused, geographically compassed, navigationally composed and just plain oozing sangiovese in Riserva form. Many facets are at play and to thank; Vagliagli, Castelnuovo Berardenga and concrete eggs are just a few though truth be told, in Dievole’s case, are all larger than life. They all contribute for presence, texture and ultimately, dreaminess. Drink 2022-2028. Tasted February 2019

91 Barone Ricasoli Brolio Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2016
Riserva is but a bambino, locked tight, with great acidity, fruit agglomerated as one from a selection of all the vineyards. It’s the Ricasoli signature sangiovese dish, a true estate combinative Riserva. This is like taking a tour through all of the plots scattered around 270 hectares, to gain an understanding of what goes into making this Gaiole in Chianti body of work. The insight and grasp is yet unfulfilled because in this case it will take some time for all the moving parts to come together. Solid work in Riserva regardless, really really solid. Drink 2021-2026. Tasted February 2019

90 Mazzei Ser Lapo Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2016
Big 2016 fruit from the Mazzei family, with a massive amount of concentration to meet a grip no honest man can pay. Clearly a wine of maceration, concentration and fine liquid tannic focus. Long and true in the context of the tradition of Ser Lapo. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted February 2019

90 Rocca Delle Macìe Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Famiglia Zingarelli 2016
Classic firm and over delivering entry for a Zingarelli Riserva built to last. Succulent of red fruit rolling round beneath a hard savoury candy fruit shell. Such a rich edition with lights flared and motor running. I’d wait a couple of years for the richness of 2016 fruit, the warmth and the bones to get together. Drink 2021-2027. Tasted February 2019

89 Vicchiomaggio Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Agostino Petri 2015
Riserva Petri is the largest of the Vicchiomaggio cru, in production of 500 hL so 60,000 bottles. Aged in used barriques and large barrels. A deeper and darker sangiovese so silky and smooth. There is now a balsamic and truffle aspect to the aromas, with some chocolate on the palate. Last tasted February 2019

Agostino Peri is an expressly and explicitly written Riserva from Vicchiomaggio, dusty, high in acidity and ultimately, ostensibly wholly, traditional. Sits on a perch above Greve in Chianti lands to tell the world. Drink 2019-2024. Tasted February 2018

Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2016:

95 Conti Capponi/Villa Calcinaia Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigna Contessa Luisa 2016

Now for something completely different. The Contessa’s vineyard is a lifelong dream and confounding sangiovese from which to grab attention. She’s immediately elegant and charming and then so closed. She is predicated on darkening red cherry fruit but her acidity is formidable and so the connection is severe to establish. She lingers with you for so long that you don’t know what to do because she was never really accessible to begin with. Teasing Gran Selezione, an incubus for now, but eventually you will realized the dream. FYI, the oldest estate 1959 planted Contessa Luisa vineyard was dedicated to matriarch Luisa Vonwiller. Drink 2023-2033. Tasted February 2019

95 Castello Di Ama Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigneto Bellavista 2016
It’s worth noting that Bellavista is the Gran Selezione passed over in 2014 because it is only deemed worthy of being made in the most concentrated of vintages. Bellavista may be a brother to San Lorenzo but they really couldn’t be any different. Deeper, richer, more tannic and structured, with a chalkiness that speaks to white limestone. But it’s a not a lightning, bright red fruit sangiovese, no rather it’s strong, deep, grippy, brooding and built for the longest of of hauls. This fulfills the wishes of a very specific type of Chianti Classico, of an emperor’s structure in sangiovese clothes. Drink 2022-2030. Tasted February 2019

94 Conte Capponi/Villa Calcinaia Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigna Bastignano 2016
Capponi’s Bastignano is a Gran Selezione consistent and repetitively persistent to speak its singular truth. It is truly hematic, a sumptuous, oozing full-fruit sangiovese with above the left bank of the river Greve coursing through its blood. Very smooth, seamless, finely tannic and beautifully high in ripe acida. If all GS carried such acid then the category would float even higher. Drink 2021-2029. Tasted February 2019

93 Castello Di Ama Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG San Lorenzo 2016
San Lorenzo will gift all that Ama has to offer with respect to sangiovese for the 2016 vintage. The fruit is quite dark cherry, perhaps exceeding acquainted expectation though truth be told expectation is easy to handle when vineyards, fruit and seminal acidity do what they do. Far from a tumult of tannin sacrifices nothing to pleasure. A great San Lorenzo many will simply want to drink. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted February 2019

92 Conti Capponi/Villa Calcinaia Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG La Fornace 2016
Vigna Fornace, “The Furnace” is indeed the warmest of the Capponi Gran Selezione, full of gathered 2016 sunshine, ready to melt in the mouth acidity, tannins and in this case, chocolate. The acidity is very different to Bastigano, here cured, developed and dare it be said in such a young wine, assimilated. Drink this younger while ye wait for the bigger structure and high tonal Bastigano. Drink 2019-2024. Tasted February 2019

91 Rocca Delle Macìe Gran Selezione Chianti Classico DOCG Riserva Di Fizzano Single Vineyard 2016
In 2016 the cards all align for this ubiquitous and all pervasive get to market Gran Selezione, with a sweet fruit core and satiny viscosity to tell the tale of an estate and a category. This is so very stylish, cultured and rendered sangiovese with round edging, good quality acidity and a voice to last a generation. Drink 2021-2029. Tasted February 2019

Chianti Classico DOCG 2015:

91 Tenuta Perano Chianti Classico DOCG 2015
The second harvest (though the first to enter the market) for Frescobaldi’s Tenuta Perano in Gaiole is a fortuitous one and you have to see these steep vineyards for yourself to believe what possibilities there can be. The unusual situation of a simultaneous release alongside the same vintage Riserva is necessary and understood because the ’14 fruit was de-classified and sold off. Chianti Classico Annata is proper when this much freshness abounds, with high acidity and Gaiole savour. So very and bloody Gaiole and I say this with blood orange in mind. There is also a forested nod and a wink in affinity over the hills to Radda but this remains secure in its Gaiole clothing. The angles, slopes and aspects of Perano’s steepness are echoed in the way this sangiovese ambles across the palate, expanding and contracting as sangiovese likes to and will often do. Temperature fluctuations will also impart this sense of breaths taken in and out. Great intrigue here and with no surprise why Frescobaldi coveted this impressive property. Drink 2018-2022. Tasted September 2018 and February 2019

90 Losi Querciavalle Chianti Classico DOCG 2015
Let’s talk about sangiovese needing time. Even this generous and rapturous 2015 from the Losi family is not ready to tell its Castelnuovo Berardenga, on the road to Pontignano truth. Not yet. Annata yes I know but structured like the chapels that take a decade or more to restore after many centuries of formidable architecture refusing to yield. Like this Alberese fed sangiovese. Always a firm one of honest and fair play. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted February 2019

88 Le Cinciole Chianti Classico DOCG 2015
Quite the tangy and chewy number this ’15, let bleed from Panzano Galestro, at once torn and frayed and then fully engaged in its business. This has got you by the cherries that much it’s true and while it’s a bit out of its musical element there’s a charm about it’s country twang. Drink 2020-2024. Tasted February 2019

88 Stefano Farina Le Bocce Chianti Classico DOCG 2015
Fleshy, somewhat morbido, dark red to black fruit sangiovese with some complications, notably acidity that stands apart. Fruit so savoury and tangy tart leaning into a raisin direction. There’s an intensity, a high tonality and also a depth of dried fruit. Drink 2020-2023. Tasted February 2019

Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2015:

92 Le Fonti Di Panzano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2015
Two years in the barrel (400 and 500L, one is Hungarian Kader), again approximately 90 per cent sangiovese and the new wood in ’15 was in the 20 per cent range. Here comes that Le Fonti aromatic profile again, as distinct as any sangiovese you will ever nose. Would like to think they could be picked out of a line-up anywhere. Savoury, salty, cured, elegant and pure pleasure available. The quietest 15 per cent alcohol anywhere and from the coolest part of Panzano, to the east. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted February 2019

92 Rocca Di Castagnoli Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Poggio A Frati 2015
Poggio A Frati 2015 is primarily sangiovese though usually contains a few percentage points of canaiolo, for tradition. The vines grow on 12 hectares of schisty Alberese soil at Poggio Fratti, “the hills of the friars.” The generous season is blessed of beautifully defined tannins, fine and sweet, with that vintage’s glycerin fruit and really intense acidity. This is such a baby but with tannins so accomplished there will be a really fine future, sooner and later. Drink 2021-2029. Tasted February 2019

91 Castello Di Querceto Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2015
Classically styled 2015, honest, pure and welling with extracted sangiovese depth. Acidity, grip and then tension all consistently woven from and beyond Annata, but it too is silky smooth,with a liquid liquorice ooze. Smooth bitter balsamic finish. Drink 2020-2024. Tasted September 2018 and February 2019

91 Tenuta Perano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2015
In Riserva the essence of this Gaiole location is continued to be captured, along with a strong Frescobaldi identity instituted for an early defined Perano style. It’s a severe set of vineyard landscapes here and appropriating the place is necessary to making quality sangiovese. The sanguinity and orange citrus aspects speak of the white limestone and chalkiness in the soils, here accompanied by a Riserva glaze, slightly caramelized and charred al forno. The fruit multiplied by earth richness is properly rendered and texturally you can imagine this to feel like elastic pizza dough. Acidity is everything, the key to success and the director of the project. As it should be with sangiovese, Chianti Classico and this place. The focus begins right away with vintage number one and so the future of Gaiole is ensured inclusive with the talents of Frescobaldi. Truly. Drink 2019-2023. Tasted September 2018 and February 2019

Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2015:

95 Volpaia Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Il Puro 2015
Il Puro takes her purity to another level in 2015 with fruit so silky fine and chalky tannins integrated into liquid even finer than that fine. The accumulation is just impressive and the charm meeting grace even more so than that. The Mascheroni-Stianti family has really found a stride in this GS to explain why it exists and how it can make many people happy. The structure here will take this through two or three decades of unfolding. There is a house record to prove it, ironically regardless and in spite of the bottle’s name. This is sangiovese. Drink 2023-2037. Tasted February 2019

95 I Fabbri Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2015
A choice selection of sangiovese only from the oldest vineyards (1969 and 1984, planted by Susanna Grassi’s father Guiliano). The fine, fine lines, streaks and sets are all a matter of taking the best of the best. The two wines made before this were 2011 Gran Selezione and 2007 (special) Riserva. Texture is drawn from altitude, climate and states of grace. Susanna believes that a special bottle should be made in only the most special vintages. A pretty good argument for commerce in terms of the category, if not everyone were to make it every year. A serious argument. No make-up, no overblowing of extraction, wood or horns. Know this wine. It’s from Lamole. Drink 2021-2034. Tasted February 2019

94 Colle Bereto Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2015
Here is a rich, rendered and Radda rocking Gran Selezione with dark fruit, high acidity and really sweet tannins. So very stylish with a keen sense of itself and who it aims to please. Colle Bereto’s bring the cleanest fruit and Bernardo Bianchi’s are very confident Chianti Classico, sempre e per sempre. Drink 2022-2031. Tasted February 2019

93 Il Molino Di Grace Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Il Margone 2015
Molino di Grace’s Margone 2015 perpetuates the previous and original epoch for the estate, healthy, ambitious, full-bodied and of a wealth by fruit multiplied through wood. While it has always been a celebration of its land, it has also always been a wine made big, bold, spicy and tannic through the ushering along of real men’s barrels. That said Margone ’15 is the most calm and layered one to date, full of textures, tapestry and chewy rapport. It marks a turning point, not a complete one, but surely the one where both feet are securely and confidently striding forward into the new dimension of re-invention. Drink 2022-2029. Tasted February 2019

93 Rocca Delle Macìe Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Sergio Zingarelli 2015
The 2015 Zingarelli Gran Selezione is a taut, youthful, fresh and also very tannic sangiovese. The toasty wood notes and chocolate are much in play with the fruit still tied up in youth. It’s one that takes all that ’15 wants to give, big, dense and and weighty. Will take five plus years to unfold and reveal, then five more to establish its territory. Castellina in Chianti. Drink 2023-2031. Tasted February 2019

92 Marchesi Antinori Badia A Passignano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2015
Instantly recognizable archetype of the continuum in Chianti Classico excellence and one of the original seven Gran Selezione. Badia a Passignano comes to life in 2015 with the generosity of fruit that not all in the top of the pyramid category will exhibit as best in show. The classically styled tenets of structure, acidities and tannins are qualified fine as fine can be. Purposefully produced to be this way, to dot every I, T and traditional Italian restaurant wine list. Very fine. Drink 2019-2025. Tasted November 2018 and February 2019

Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2013:

92 Villa Di Geggiano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2013

Geggiano’s ’13 is certainly a sangiovese explicit of expression within a sub-category that falls inside the category of multiplicity that is Riserva. That it took five years to come to a place of accessibility is no shocker and shares yet another detail of this nook in the western edges of Castelnuovo Berardenga. The perfume is beginning to emerge with truly succulent red liqueur. Very prominent (and promising) which is funny to say for a wine now heading into middle age, but not for Geggiano where sangiovese needs as much time as any. Tannins are fine but still in charge. Clarity and purity are surely defined. Wait another year for the next level of perfume and presence, though to be fair the structure is just a shade below the ’12. Drink 2020-2028. Tasted February 2019

San Francesco in the vineyards of Il Molino di Grace

Not currently in Ontario market Chianti Classico

These are the wines from producers without importation agency representation in Ontario but also wines represented in Ontario that are not currently available. They may either be brought in periodically through Private Order or have not yet been imported at all.

Chianti Classico DOCG 2017:

93 Riecine Chianti Classico DOCG 2017
Riecine’s is the true limestone sangiovese, of pure and striking, fast as lightning red fruit. This is without any equivocal wavering a Chianti Classico for purists, for those who look to tradition and who seek the truth, with the most clarity and modernist’s approach. The acids are perfectly succulent, defined and refined. An Annata that will live in infamy, fifteen to twenty years or more I should think. Drink 2021-2035. Tasted February 2019

92 Podere La Cappella Chianti Classico DOCG 2017
Sangiovese with merlot in two and three year old botti and barriques, to be bottled in two weeks. Smells like Colombino stone, licked by rain with the fruit at its highest La Cappella promise. It’s never been this rich or full but sapidity will always streak through these wines. It reminds me of really high quality mencìa, in a way, piqued by toasty spice, juicy and ready for great meats and roasted vegetables. Drink 2020-2028. Tasted February 2019

91 Podere Poggio Scalette Chianti Classico DOCG 2017
Quite forward and viscous for a Jurji Fiore Annata at so young a moment which tells us that in the heat of 2017 the highest altitudes were able to not only get to maximum phenolics but also do it with an accumulation of next level texture. For those who love Scalette’s lighting sangiovese and for those who like it real and those also those who want crushable this hits every collective note. Drink 2020-2025. Tasted February 2019

90 Castello Di Monsanto Chianti Classico DOCG 2017
Once again here is the Castello di Monsanto perfume, distinct, proper, self-effacing correct and then into a purity of taste and texture to carry the name. Sangiovese and the meaning of what is now known collectively as Barberino Tavarnelle. A bit crunchy this early, indeed it is very young and will officially go to bottle in two weeks, though the wine is clearly a finished one. Another gem from Laura Bianchi. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted February 2019

90 Fattoria Montecchio Chianti Classico DOCG ‘Primum Line’ 2017
Spring frost has resulted in minuscule quantities from a very young vineyard (though 22 years of age). Pretty impressive for Annata, with enough freshness to balance the weight and the sheer presence of this wine. This is the Premium (Primum) alternative to the original and much larger production Chianti Classico DOCG. Drink 2020-2025. Tasted February 2019

88 Fattoria Di Montecchio Chianti Classico DOCG 2017
The original, historical label, having been 140,000 bottles production. A year in grandi botti plus four months in bottle before release. Classic, savoury, San Donato bigger, silky and smooth style. Not hard to understand and easy to drink. Find some of this ’17, drink it while waiting for the more structured 16s and stay loyal to a fine, honest and hard working house. Drink 2019-2021. Tasted February 2019

Chianti Classico DOCG 2016:

92 Podere Cianfanelli Chianti Classico DOCG Cianfanello 2016

From David Cianfanelli in the most northeasterly corner of the territory in Greve. Tight and also reductive, or hand in hand in a way and über promising. Reminds me of the sangiovese styling by Luca Martini di Cigala at San Giusto e Rentennano, serious, in control and perfectly reasonable for what the vineyard wants to give. Lithe airiness in here, with clay and Galestro in the vineyard. From a warm location butted up against a cooling hill. Goes both ways, AC/DC, with savour and rich fruit but so in balance. Acids are prepared, round and supportive while tannins take charge in the long winded end. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted February 2019

92 Istine Chianti Classico DOCG Vigna Istine 2016
Eponymous winery vineyard facing northwest, surrounded by forest at 550m, rocky, steep, full of both Galestro and Alberese, bottled in May 2018 and will be sent to market in January 2019. The dusty, savoury and structured one, from the steep slope and if there is a vineyard that delivers more black olive tapenade and wild earthy complexity, please let me know. This needs time, loads of precious time to get into a charming place. It’s a matter of layers waiting to peel back, air and breath. It’s also a thing of powerful beauty, linear, direct and vines that breathe in the forest and bathe in the morning sun. Harvested third week of October, a month before 2017 and two weeks before what will be in 2018. Submits a new voice into the modern lexicon of Chianti Classico. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted September 2018 and February 2019

92 Fattoria Pomona Chianti Classico DOCG 2016

91 L’erta Di Radda Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
A tightly wound, sharp as a tack, robust, fascinating, lightning quick sangiovese with Galestro and altitude in its blood. Really forceful through the brightest red fruit in the book. Intensely red liqueur wowing with no loss of pulse, tempo or fast paced drum kit animale. Radda Sangiovese strike straight to the heart. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted February 2019

91 Poggerino Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
You must walk these Radda vineyards to understand what’s in this glass. Regard the way the rows of vines change colour in September and give up a variability of timing. It is these stops along the way where winemaker Piero Lanza makes his picks then crushes, macerates and collectively ferments. It results in the most seamless, albeit high alcohol, glycerin and textured sangiovese. It is Chianti Classico made precisely the way it needs to be made from this very specific place. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted February 2019

91 Poggiopiano Chianti Classico DOCG La Tradizione 2016
One of the new standard bearers and setters for San Casciano sangiovese. A massively structured Annata that will need rest and will eventually emerge in time. While more traditional than the sister ’16, this comes as no surprise considering the name. Tart and intense, Alberese demanding and purposed, asking for and being granted the request for a return engagement at a much later date. Drink 2022-2029. Tasted February 2019

91 Fattoria Montecchio Chianti Classico DOCG ‘Primum Line’ 2016
Quite reductive and wound with a tightness that moves the adage one step up the rung, the one that says sangiovese needs time. For ’16 it’s a matter more pressing and a story yet to be told. It’s tart but so very layered and there’s a feeling of Galestro here, with a darker chalky texture and mouthfeel. Perhaps not the same weight as 2015 but more power and structure by a mile. It’s about preference of style and vintage variation. You may have to drink 15s while this waits two or three years before seeing the glory unfold. Drink 2021-2027. Tasted February 2019

91 Fattoria Dell’aiola Chianti Classico DOCG Aiola 2016
High glycerin, chewy, textured, tangy and ropey red fruit Annata with great purity though certainly up there in ripeness, alcohol and ambition. Reminds of the dark and intense sangiovese from Galestro marl west of the Arbia River though it’s not as deeply rendered and the tonality is a bit higher. Surely seems like Castelnuovo (and turns out it is) but in the northeast, off of slopes abutted up against Radda. If you’ve not heard of Aiola you and I need to know this estate and their vineyards, which certainly present sangiovese right up there with some of Chianti Classico’s finest. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted February 2019

91 Ormanni Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
The combination of Poggibonsi and Barberino val d’Elsa is Ormanni’s trump card, a straddling of commune borders that creates the ideal estate Annata in perfect alignment. It’s really layered and sumptuous, old school at heart but clear, pure and honest, always looking straight ahead. There’s no rusticity but there is this red fruit beauty that reminds of days of yore. Drink 2021-2027. Tasted February 2019

91 Monte Bernardi Chianti Classico DOCG Retromarcia 2016
Retromarcia represents 75 per cent of the production from vines under 50 years old, averaging 13 years of age, from all four points on the estate. “The workhorse,” says Michael Schmelzer, giving perfume, tannin and a great chew. La matematica è bella; 75 per cent of 75,000 bottles on 75 hectares, of Galestro (70 per cent), purple-brown shale/pietraforte-sandstone (20) and Alberese (10). Made by adding stems back, but not before in the carbonic maceration way. “because that’s winemaking. I feel that I’m adding tannins and de-acidifying naturally, increased in cold years and decreased in the hot ones.” It’s a matter of potassium bonding with tartaric acid dropping out. Longer macerations occur in high acid (i.e. cooler) years and vice versa. Last tasted February 2019

Retromarcia is like the Swahili “pole, pole,” a reminder to us all to slow down, gear down, chill out, take it easy. This Annata has been a 100 per cent, Panzano in Chianti estate grown sangiovese since 2010. The fruit is some of the sweetest and purest sangiovese out there, with a scent of anise, a whiff of tobacco. It’s unequivocally “molto frutto,” with glycerin texture, especially for the frazione and also nosing spiced floral notes. Fresh, light in the tannic department, light in weight and also in alcohol (13.5). Just a joy to drink. As a match to an Italian racer it’s a sprinter, Gino Bartali, Cavaliere di Gran Croce, Gino the Pious, 1950 winner in San Remo. Drink 2018-2021. Tasted September 2018

91 Vicchiomaggio Chianti Classico DOCG Guado Alto 2016
Guado Alto is the first, La Prima of four Vicchiomaggio cru, so small in fact that it delivers only 50 hL (6,000 bottles). In Annata it is so bloody fresh and perfectly tangy, modernist with really fine acidity. Matured only in large barrels it’s a stylish, chicca of a sangiovese with the kind of length needed to sooth and keep you coming back for more. Clarity and focus in Annata incarnate. Drink 2019-2023. Tasted February 2019

91 Montefioralle Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Harvested at the end of September from the warmest and most gracious gifting vintage. Stock in colour may be unnecessary but oh so beautiful this one, deeply hued, rendered of a purple that’s really just perfect. Grace in acidity meets depth of fruit and such polish. There is nothing rustic about this and yet the perfumed meets spice profile is exacting and pure for this Montefioralle terroir, which incidentally is three hectares of planted vineyards. Silk in sangiovese, honest and pure. Drink 2019-2025. Tasted September 2018 and February 2019

90 Vallone Di Cecione Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Old school, volatile, earthy, funky and very, very real. From Panzano, organic, natural and all you want in sangiovese of this particular ilk. Dreamy. Long and immediately gratifying due to being battle ready. Drink 2019-2021. Tasted February 2019

90 Stomennano Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
The Grassi family borgo is in close proximity to the medieval town of Monteriggioni just outside of the Chianti Classico zone. Their vineyards are Castellina in Chianti, of sangiovese and colorino grown on loose and not very deep soils where beneath there is grey clay and tufaceous rock. Their’s is lovely rich and delicate sangiovese of ripeness and verdancy intermingling. Great presence, length, high acidity and texture fills the mouth. Cool, minty, savoury. Drink 2020-2026. Tasted February 2019

90 Renzo Marinai Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
One step closer to a deep, deep understanding is where Marinai has arrived with this welling, oozing and fully rendered Greve sangiovese. There’s some true depth and fullness to this fruit and this constitution, not to mention architecture. Certainly filled with warmth and spice for the lovers here. Drink 2020-2024. Tasted February 2019

90 Poggiopiano Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Nothing hidden here about the level of texture, aromatic layering and tannic amenability, wholly consistent if much improved impression from San Casciano in Val di Pesa. It’s a big, nearly boozy and welling to oozing sangiovese of deep cherry and next level modernity. Will please many camps, especially Italian wine lists that must have this avant garde producer on board. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted February 2019

90 Bindi Sergardi Chianti Classico DOCG La Ghirlanda 2016
Full sweet natural fruit, a reductive shell and real savoury Mocieni character add up to an Annata from the generous vintage without a tenebrous bone in its body. Chewy mouthful, collected acids and finely grained tannins. A step up again for the Castelnuovo house. Drink 2020-2025. Tasted February 2019

90 I Fabbri Chianti Classico DOCG Terra di Lamole 2016
Take the Lamole terroir and taste it again and again. Though it may be confounding the first 10 or 12 tries it continues to educate and with time you are unable to avoid the understanding and the temptation. There is a layer beneath the Greve level, of altitude and aspect but also a variability that deems sangiovese impermeable within a context of repeatable. Hard to explain, really. Sweet as original fruit, a genesis of Chianti Classico and a fineness that slides and grooves effortless and with succulence. Drink 2021-2027. Last tasted February 2019

Lamole in Greve is the source for this high toned, stone-tined and savoury aromatic young Annata, traditional, mildly volatile in its wise rusticity and surprisingly tannic. This is the sort of pressed sangiovese you’d find over the decades, from information and technique passed down and upheld by the current generation. Continues the thread with more microbes and real live tart notes to taste. Builds and builds upon its old-school foundation. Drink 2018-2021. Tasted February 2018

89 San Fabiano Calcinaia Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Rich and earthy, full dark liqueur, lots of barrel and needing time. This is brawny but needs time. It will settle, eventually and offer great pleasure. The biggest Annata from Poggibonsi, deep in clay and consistently structured this way. Drink 2022-2026. Tasted February 2019

89 La Querce Seconda Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Nicely funky volatile, a rich cherry liqueur, full of spice both out of the vineyard and from the barrel. There is this chewiness that is also marked by a mouthful of spice, candied flowers and calcareous chalkiness from big variegated stones in the soil. Crunchy Annata out of San Casciano in Val di Pesa. Drink 2020-2026. Tasted February 2019

89 Borgo La Stella Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Cool climate Chianti Classico on full display here with a vintage advantage though you can’t take the hill or the place out of the sangiovese. Seriously savoury, gariga style and a cherry liqueur that’s as much liquor and very much singular of its La Stella own. Quite fine. Drink 2020-2024. Tasted February 2019

89 Podere Terreno Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Terreno’s lights are flashing with sangiovese of bright fruit and ultra high tones. That said there is a macerated and extracted depth to this, with layered acidity and grippy tannins. It’s very youthful and not showing its best, at least not yet. Might allow the shell to be cracked in a year or more likely two. Drink 2021-2027. Tasted February 2019

89 Vecchie Terre Di Montefili Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Talk about exotics. The aromatics are all perfume and spice; cinnamon, clove, liquorice, star anise and Szechuan pepper. It’s a veritable Pho broth in Greve in Chianti, sangiovese clothing. The barrel is an obvious influence but the fruit remains lightning quick and culpable for place. I find it a bit thin and lean for 2016 so it’s a bit of a disparate accumulation. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted February 2019

89 Castellinuzza E Piuca Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
From Greve in Chianti, the sangiovese di Lamole here is strong, youthful, firm and pure. Bright red fruit so typical of the frazione indicates limestone for cherries. Also a salumi of Mortadella and yes, that sort of connection is imaginable and possible. Very fresh with big acidity from the cool night air at 550m above sea level. The inclusion of 10 per cent canaiolo only accentuates the sapidity and the terraced sense of place. If it were a rider it would be Felice Gimondi, precocious and gregarious, a rookie who was a 1965 Tour de France winner in his first try. Drink 2018-2022. Tasted September 2018 and February 2019

88 Terre Di Perseto Chianti Classico DOCG Albòre 2016
Sweet and candied, high acidity but not in a VA way, though alt-morbido malic and hard candy shelled. Needs some time for the crackling and the cracking to flake away. Drink 2019-2020. Tasted February 2019

88 Montecalvi Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
A highly recognizable style of Annata, tangy, soil chalky and textured of sour cherries, ripe and a bit feral. Well on its way to celebrate a Greve in Chianti terroir with this sandy clay (and some Galestro) soil. Drink 2020-2023. Tasted February 2019

88 La Sala Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Quite the traditional sangiovese offering up a seriously parochial San Casciano sense of place. Grounded in pace from that place in peace out to the Galestro and Argilla Rosa. Drink 2020-2024. Tasted February 2019

88 Le Masse Di Lamole Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
From Annamaria, great-granddaughter to founder Emilio Soccio, who with her husband Giuliano tend to some of Lamole’s highest vineyards at upwards of 650m. Their’s is a highly traditional, high acidity and sapid sangiovese at the rooftop of the territory, “il tetto del Chianti.” From the generous vintage and showing well early. Some canaiolo and colorino field blended in only accentuate the loyalty and the adherence to place. Authenticity incarnate right here. Drink 2019-2023. Tasted February 2019

87 Fattoria Rodáno Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
Dirty, peppery reductive and dark fruit, black earth, sharp, woody, old school and spicy. Storm clouds looming, threats on the horizon. Take shelter. Return in two years when the dust has settled. From Castellina in Chianti. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted February 2019

87 San Giorgio A Lapi Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
San Giorgio a Lapi is an unusually floral and aromatic sangiovese, much more so than many. It veers and teeters to the edge of geranium but manages the balance to hang on the right side of 2016. It’s a bit brittle on the palate but there is no oxidative or raisining tendency. Perhaps just a bit out of sorts at this time. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted February 2019

Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2016:

94 Poggerino Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Bugialla 2016
Piero Lanza’s selection is so smart, protracted and tidy within the framework of what a Poggerino Riserva just happens to be. It’s almost as you find yourself scanning the vineyards and your mind’s eye settles on a few perfect plants. You taste the berries from those vines and imagine them bound together in wine. This is the sangiovese mimic of those isolated points of a very special vineyard and also a perfectly constructed stone house in Gaiole, variegated, tightly intertwined and just beautiful to behold. Perfectly streamlined, built to last a few hundred years, but I would suggest to drink it 280 years before that. Drink 2022-2032. Tasted February 2019

93 Fattoria Pomona Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Bandini 2016
Purity of handsome fruit lingers left, right and centre within a commission of structural components designed by nature on the road past Villa Pomona up through Castellina in Chianti. The vintage is a rich and elastic one for Monica Raspi and one she must have just delighted in simply being a part of. Elegance as the opposite of vice. Reaches all the essential peaks, plateaus and precipices where supple fruit settles and rests. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted February 2019

91 Tenuta Cinciano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2016
Cinciano ’16 Riserva bleeds straight from the Annata in style though because of the berry concentration and extra aging it misses out on the transparency and the basic purity, at least at this so very early stage. Tannins are grippy while fluid and the vineyard waits in anything but vein. Drink 2022-2027. Tasted February 2019

91 Cigliano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2016
A sleeper this vineyard, on a peninsula out into a great wide void of San Casciano set beneath fairy tales and vistas to set you straight. This is Riserva made to do the same, to ground you in a garden, on a perch, with nothing but tranquil surroundings. Succulent acids support ripe fruit egged on by the variegate of the soil. Drink 2022-2028. Tasted February 2019

91 La Sala Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2016
What an absolutely lovely Riserva from La Sala in San Casciano, with purity, transparency and clarity. The acidity is perfectly uplifting and the fruit a loyal follower. The tannins are sweet, supple, supportive and once again the fruit tows the tannic line. Structured for a slow, soft and delicate incline, followed by a graceful decline. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted February 2019

91 Riecine Chianti Classic Riserva DOCG 2016
Older schooled, tart, tangy, intense, welling and oozing Riserva. Very, truly, obviously Riserva. Like ’13 in a way but the vintage is almost a polar opposite so it’s clearly an estate style in as much as there ever could be. Built to age for a long time. Drink 2022-2029. Tasted February 2019

91 Vicchiomaggio Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Vegan 2016
This is note merely John Matta being whimsical or polite but a wine born of an idea to bring something to market that many people demand, want and need. A vegan wine from a specific vineyard area where no animal products are used. The whole process is certified, including the cork. There is a peppery reductive meets soil movement, here with a “natural wine” feel though it’s all red to black fruit with a stop at purple flowers. Very smooth, lightly tannic, not a rare beef pairing Riserva. Not just vegan friendly. Truly vegan. Good on you John Matta. Drink 2019-2020. Tasted February 2019

Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2016:

93 Vicchiomaggio Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Le Bolle 2016
Named for the small group of houses to which the vineyard abuts, a vineyard where the large gathering of stones resembles Les Galets of Châteauneuf-de-Pâpe. The total prodcution is 50 hL (6,000 bottles). Just going into bottle as we speak, there is a structural architecture to this Gran Selezione that stands apart. La Prima is the wine for everyman while Le Bolle will appeal to ye who wants edgy, artistic and deferential. The blood orange, cranberry, pomegranate and sapid-herbal attributes are all part of the extenuating mix. Terrifc single-block within a single-vineyard expression of solo sangiovese Gran Selezione. Drink 2022-2031. Tasted February 2019

Chianti Classico DOCG 2015:

91 I Fabbri Chianti Classico DOCG Terra Di Lamole 2015

91 I Fabbri Chianti Classico DOCG Olinto 2015
From sangiovese (80 per cent) plus merlot, named after great-grandfather Olinto Grassi, nonno, patriarch and pioneer in Lamole. From vineyards at 500m and aged part in concrete plus part in barrels. A very different wine because of the merlot, more of a big hug, with sweeter and less tart acids, not the same caress in the mouth, but surely silky and easy. Get into the glass and note the orange, blood or just simply orange. Fresh and spirited regardless of merlot or not. Pair with Pino Daniele, the Italian Van Morrison. Drink 2019-2023. Tasted February 2019

90 Poggio Borgoni Chianti Classico DOCG Curva Del Vescovo 2015
From San Casciano, “Curve Of The Bishop” is a rich and nearly voluptuous sangiovese with more than enough fruit to withstand the triad of wood, acidity and tannin in great, systemic but manageable concentration. Yes, a truly concentrated CC to be clear and surely so, with extensions in many directions but mostly length. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted February 2019

89 Fattoria Montecchio Chianti Classico DOCG ‘Primum Line’ 2015
A sangiovese with five per cent Alicante Bouschet and the first of its kind in terms of Annata. Diverts 10 per cent fruit by way of selection from the original and traditional Chianti Classico and it’s quite a beautiful wine in 2015 though not as structured as 2016. It’s like a compromise between that ’16 and the coming ’17. Drink 2019-2024. Tasted February 2019

88 Villa Montepaldi Chianti Classico DOCG Tagliafune 2015
Very syrupy, sweet raspberry fruit, bled from San Casciano clay and some grey stone. A tannic wine too, older schooled though there is a clarity in that world it lives. Correct, proper and successful. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted February 2019

88 La Casa Di Bricciano Chianti Classico DOCG 2015
Pretty floral syrup that’s neither too viscous nor tart, not exactly right but certainly finding some balance. A bit resolved with melted barrel notes in vanilla and lavender. Smooth, silky, satiny, easy drinking sangiovese. There was more verve from the adversarial ’14. Drink 2020-2022. Tasted February 2019

Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2015:

94 I Fabbri Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG I Fabbri 2015

It was 16 years ago that Michael Schmelzer came to Panzano with the idea to make pure and elegant wines that represent the territory. Monte Bernardi’s vineyards are in the “belly-button” at the heart of Chianti Classico, with vineyards spread out beneath the winery from 300-410m. Tannins from the Torchiatta are what Schmelzer calls “the best that you can get.” What you get from the pressings and then the ripe stems brings sapidity and longevity. The Riserva is a vineyard selection from only Galestro soils, across the road, 95 per cent sangiovese, with canaiolo and malvasia. Stems are added back in and the wine is aged in botti grandi plus tonneaux, if there is more than the botti can hold. The idea here is the soft constitution from rocks that absorb more solar radiation and yet the acidity is wound remarkably tight so imagine what’s coming next from the Pietraforte in the Sa’Etta. Sapidity is exceptional, in fact in spite of fruit right on the button it’s really quite everything. Drink 2019-2024. Tasted February 2019

93 Podere Campriano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Le Balze Di Montefioralle 2015
Exactly Campriano, distinct and luxurious in its own perfect way. it’s so very Riserva, unctuous with red fruit that seems almost completely absent of wood. because of the land, a vineyard set in the forest “and still so very present.” That also means it’s in the wine. recognizable every year. Always. The vineyard is west facing above the Greve River, on old terraces, with old stones. You can drink this now even if it’s so young. Last tasted February 2019

Just put to market, the vintage will surely have so much to say and that it in fact already does, with a combination of perfume and spice. Still dusty, with fennel and endemic herbs, teas and brushy plants. There’s a raspberry to dried currant fruitiness that ’14 doesn’t have, also more mid-palate flesh and overall juiciness. A different sort of structure, still with long capabilities but will likely go into a drier fruit profile after the seven year mark. Elena Lapini is a very busy agriturismo and viticoltore proprietor these days and if these most recent 100 per cent sangiovese from two sides of the Greve river tracks are any indication, she’ll be busier than ever before. Drink 2019-2025. Tasted September 2018

93 Podere La Cappella Querciolo Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Unfiltered 2015
Querciolo sees one year in barriques, of which 20 per cent is new. Takes off straight away from where the ’15 Annata wants it to, from a generosity and a perfume that stands apart because the vintage says so. There’s still a minor peppery reductive note and that will serve this wine so well going two decades further. One sip lingers so long on the back of the tongue, right in the middle, lingering like a bite of something marbled, a protein of layered flavour. Here you really get a sense of marine sediment and rocks one over the other, in perpetuity out of the soil. Drink 2021-2030. Tasted February 2019

93 Val Delle Corti Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2015
The 45 year old vines are responsible for this single cru, 100 per cent sangiovese that while older is yet bolder than the barrel sample tasted of 2016. Here you feel the hottest weeks of the summer, less elasticity, fluidity and fluency than that 2016. And yet it is so intuitively elastic, fluid and fluent in mineral rich, marly limestone soil. Here from the Corti Valley on the east facing slope above the river below. Richness, weight and red fruit so specific to this place meets the Radda acidity head on but can’t help but be submissive and respectful. Pure expression of estate, valley and commune. Truly. Drink 2020-2029. Tasted September 2018 and February 2019

91 Montecchio Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Premium Line 2015
The Riserva is 95 per cent sangiovese with cabernet sauvignon and alicante bouschet. It ages for 26 months in grandi botti. Quite rich, even reductive, with its upside not yet available. As for Riserva it’s ripe, ripping, big, high in acidity and so necessary to wait at least two more years for it to settle down. Pulsates, quivers and sends shock waves around the mouth, with heavy-hitting sapidity and structural shudders. Quite amaro herbal and very, very long. There is some serious structure available for the log haul here. Impressive and demanding. Drink 2022-2028. Tasted February 2019

91 Podere Castellinuzza Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2015
Podere Castellinuzza’s Riserva is one of Lamole’s most generous (100 per cent) sangiovese though not without the very particular salty-mineral-sapid streak the hill always delivers. Only 1,500 bottles were produced of this highly traditional Greve-Lamole ’15 and it’s most certainly a perfect foil for fresh pasta with pumpkin, roast chicken, pork and rabbit. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted February 2019

91 Montefioralle Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2015
So very young and powerful, just a few months in bottle. Primary and beautifully perfumed with the liquified deep fruit chalk of the frazioni and a hit of exotic spice. An intensity that ’14 just did not show and the polish we know to be the kind mastered out of Montefioralle by this passion project house. The liqueur is again one of textured silk, a viscosity to nearing the vanishing point of glück and in the end, total domination. Drink 2019-2024. Tasted September 2018 and February 2019

Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2015:

94 Bindi Sergardi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Mocenni ’89 2015

There’s pure unbridled surprise in the delicasse and the gentility of this Gran Selezione, one of the more and even most charming of them all. The Mocenni texture is very present, very full, no holes, no peaks or valleys, just a calm and easy nature that finds no reason for stress. Pure fruit, Galestro and Alberese interwoven freshness. Proper, sweet and forward thinking tannins with a future ahead indeed. Drink 2020-2029. Tasted February 2019

94 Tenuta Cinciano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2015
Cinciano’s is a true effort and tour de acidity force in 2015, with fruit drawn from the oldest blocks of great rock filled soils in Poggibonsi. It’s perfectly perfumed with exotica and the brushy herbs that grown on hillsides and in between rows. A wise and cultured GS that stands apart for its beauty and its power. Forged with great passion and insights to be clear and sure. Drink 2023-2033. Tasted February 2019

93 Le Fonti Di Panzano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2015
Thirty months in wood and a year in bottle later, this top estate wine is the pinnacle of the Le Fonti aromatic certainty. A big vintage to be sure and one that extrapolates in every which way but loose. Taut, tight, firm, grippy and every other subset of structure you can imagine. The 100 per cent sangiovese ideal is acquiesced and believe it or not it failed DOCG designation on the first try. Who might see this as light, atypical or not ready for international prime time is surely missing the point. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted February 2019

92 Fattoria Montecchio Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2015
The vintage 2015 is the one for Montecchio ready and purposed for the category, done up two-thirds in barrel and one-third in amphora. You can feel it both in cured aromatics but also the texture, part salve and part hard savoury candy. Really takes on the Selezione category with charm and power, with ultra fine tannins and a balancing number of personality in acidity. Does what it must, by the reigns and drives a point. Here the terracotta amphora designed and built by the family business is employed to raise the character and the wonder of the sangiovese. The one third amphora adds great interest, something many other in the category could certainly use. The Riserva does not taste like this, nor does it carry this level of spice. Quite a thrill, long and rich. Drink 2022-2030. Tasted February 2019

91 Vallepicciola Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2015
Chianti Classico and Gran Selezione get neither more modern nor more forward than this. The 2015 is a brooding boozy and stylish sangiovese. Dressed up of a flashy liqueur and a massive attack. Dark fruit, lots of wood, with notes of creosote, graphite and vanilla. Just wow. Drink 2022-2029. Tasted February 2019

91 Vicchiomaggio Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG La Prima 2015
Made with a few percentage points of merlot, this is the a small-ish production Gran Selezione, a 100 hL output so the number is approximately 15,000 bottles produced. Really high-toned aromatically for Gran Selezione and then a palate of great richness and layering. Truly a selection created sangiovese, with drinkability and steak house amenability. Suits the style and the intent so perfectly. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted February 2019

Chianti Classico DOCG 2014:

92 Castell’in Villa Chianti Classico DOCG 2014

Immediate amore for the aromatics and the lack of supposition, for how this 100 per cent sangiovese is naturally careful, subtly handsome and respectfully direct. Lean but without angles or sharp, pointed edges, nor overtly weighted down in tang. Floral notes are stated in grace and like all of the Principessa’s wines from these Castelnuovo Berardenga vineyards, the singularity of restraint for power and and purity is duly recognized. Drink 2018-2024. Tasted November 2018 and February 2019

Chianti Classico DOCG 2013:

88 Castello Di Lamole Chianti Classico DOCG Le Stinche 2013

From the Lamole producer connected to one of Tuscany’s oldest castle properties, going back one thousand years and a high altitude vineyard restored 16 years ago. This is the sangiovese of the Macigno (sandstone) soil terraces of Lamole, richer than many of the frazione and deeper in textures and transitions. Raised in cement and tonneaux there are floral as well as smoky notes, almost tobacco but more like wild herbs and wood smoulder. You’ve not likely ever whiffed (or tasted) anything quite like Le Stinche, also known as “carcere delle Stinche,” the prison on Via Ghibellina in Florence. Drink 2020-2024. Tasted February 2019

Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2013-2010:

92 Castell’in Villa Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2013
A blend of parcels ”though we know more or less the fields from where they come,” says Principessa Coralia Pignatelli della Leonessa. Here we are introduced to the clarity and functionality of what Castell’in Villa has always purported to be, traditional while always moving in a forward direction of evolutionary necessity. There is no guessing game being played and the aromas are expressive of the property, in everything that grows, plus all that sits beneath and slowly rises to the surface of the fields. Flowers and rocks, together with grapes. It’s that simple really. Finesse and reality. Drink 2019-2028. Tasted February 2019

95 Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Poggio Delle Rose 2010
From the hill parcel planted in 1990 to the old selezoine massale clones, from the original property, not the current “Chianti Classico” clones. “And there is a difference,” insists Principessa Coralia. Three or four years in grandi botti and older tonneaux so no, it’s not even close to ready. Yet the fcat that you don’t explicitly notice the tonneaux is its magic. A big and complex vintage with variability in temperature and precipitation but at the crucial moments it gave what was needed. There is a special presence about this sangiovese, because of the source but also how alive, bright-eyed and expressive it is. This pulses, vibrates and reverberates with ancient seabed salinity. No loss to finesse but more time will be required, to turn back time and back pages, for the true clarity and calm disposition to settle in. Extraordinary wine of restrained power and exceptional sangiovese. Has always been Riserva and “will never be Gran Selezione.” Drink 2021-2035. Tasted February 2019

Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2013:

91 Capannelle Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2013
This first edition of Gran Selezione for Capannelle is an amzing combination of authenticity and polish, with Gaiole’s infamous acidity and herbology combining to deliver a promise of today and for the future. The estate produces no Annata because winemaker Simone has always felt that the acidity here would be over the top in the freshest wines of the year. This Gran Selezione confirms the ideology but the near future may change the plan. Meanwhile kudos for waiting before making Gran Selezione and matched to Tagliatelle con Funghi Porcini. Drink 2020-2026. Tasted September 2018 and February 2019

91 Fattoria Di Lamole Gran Selezione Chianti Classico DOCG Vigna Grospoli Antico Lamole 2013
From Paolo Socci in Lamole who also produces the alternating Annata/Riserva “Le Stinche” and who just may be Chianti Classico’s greatest and long-winded storyteller. Socci’s high altitude Greve-Lamole Grospoli vineyard is filled with Macigno stone and while Le Stinche adheres to history and tradition (both in style and the ode to the Florentine Prison’s connection to Lamole), this Gran Selezione hyperbolizes and accentuates both sides of the equation. Very smoky, high dense texture and big acids with this underbelly of sandy, gritty and grippy tannin. Once again, a most singular expression of sangiovese and Chianti Classico. Drink 2021-2029. Tasted February 2019

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to my next return in Chianti Classico.

Good to go!

godello