Winemaker Notes
The color is bright ruby, the nose unveils layers of iris, violet, tobacco, black pepper and marasca cherry. The taste is well balanced, tightly knit with supple tannins, mineral notes, a mouth cleansing fresh acidity. Warm and persistent.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Notes of cooked strawberries, red licorice, blood orange and cedar. Medium body. Bright and racy with crunchy acidity and a flavorful finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A youthful ruby/magenta, the 2021 Chianti Classico is pure, ripe, and inviting with aromas of cherry liqueur, candied roses, and fresh sweet Mediterranean herbs. This wine has wonderful transparency and clarity, with refreshing acidity, snappy lift, and ripe, fine tannins, as well as a stony underpinning and a lovely fresh lift of tomato leaf on the finish.
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Wine Spectator
A vibrant, even racy style, featuring cherry, pomegranate, rose hip and mineral aromas and flavors fused to a steely structure. Intense and elegant, this lingers, with fruit and stony mineral notes. Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo and Colorino. Best from 2026 through 2040. 12,900 cases made, 1,810 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is an organic blend of Tuscan native grapes with 90% Sangiovese and tiny percentages of Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo and Colorino. Representing a big production of 147,000 bottles, the 2021 Chianti Classico is accessible and easy-drinking with mild cherry and dried raspberry followed by almond, blue flower and peat moss. Winemaking is very simple, starting off with spontaneous yeast fermentation and brief aging in large oak casks. You get great value, especially in this classic vintage.
Among Italy's elite red grape varieties, Sangiovese has the perfect intersection of bright red fruit and savory earthiness and is responsible for the best red wines of Tuscany. While it is best known as the chief component of Chianti, it is also the main grape in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and reaches the height of its power and intensity in the complex, long-lived Brunello di Montalcino. Somm Secret—Sangiovese doubles under the alias, Nielluccio, on the French island of Corsica where it produces distinctly floral and refreshing reds and rosés.
One of the first wine regions anywhere to be officially recognized and delimited, Chianti Classico is today what was originally defined simply as Chianti. Already identified by the early 18th century as a superior zone, the official name of Chianti was proclaimed upon the area surrounding the townships of Castellina, Radda and Gaiole, just north of Siena, by Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany in an official decree in 1716.
However, by the 1930s the Italian government had appended this historic zone with additonal land in order to capitalize on the Chianti name. It wasn’t until 1996 that Chianti Classico became autonomous once again when the government granted a separate DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) to its borders. Ever since, Chianti Classico considers itself no longer a subzone of Chianti.
Many Classicos are today made of 100% Sangiovese but can include up to 20% of other approved varieties grown within the Classico borders. The best Classicos will have a bright acidity, supple tannins and be full-bodied with plenty of ripe fruit (plums, black cherry, blackberry). Also common among the best Classicos are expressive notes of cedar, dried herbs, fennel, balsamic or tobacco.