Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Made from organically-grown fruit, this savory blend of 90% Sangiovese and 10% other native grapes opens with a fragrance of blue flower, red berry, spice and tilled soil. The juicy palate delivers fleshy wild cherry and ripe raspberry accented with notes of black pepper and clove alongside brooding tannins. Give this a few more years to develop complexity. Drink 2015–2019.
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Wine & Spirits
This ancient estate in Gaiole produced an elegant riserva in 2009, with delicate scents of rose petals and earthy Etruscan tannins. It's light in color and brisk in red fruit flavor, a traditional style of Chianti, organically grown and not heavily extracted. The wine's complexity will develop over the next several years and the balance will sustain it through longer aging.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2009 Chianti Classico Riserva offers a traditional read of Tuscan winemaking. Bright and tonic aromas of forest fruit and wild spice open the bouquet. Fresh acidity is followed by a thin, but silky mouthfeel. The wine is elegantly tame and subdued. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2022.
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.