Winemaker Notes
Ruby red in color with hints of black fruit, spice, and vanilla on the nose. Round mouthfeel with a balanced acidity and elegant tannins with a long and pleasant finish.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
An articulate and energetic style with delicious roasted fruit and spicy oak drawing you in. Finely crafted, velvety and refined.
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James Suckling
This is a fantastic Chianti Classico Riserva that displays blackcurrants, dark plums, redder plums, tulips and cedar. Medium to full body, some really restrained and attractive tannins and a tangy finish. Drink now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Chianti Classico Riserva Brolio is a terrific wine that lives up to our expectations of a Riserva, while maintaining that playful informality that you don't get in the estate's more contemplative Gran Selezione. Indeed, the Riserva category of Chianti Classico has been largely overlooked ever since Gran Selezione came onto the scene some seven years ago, thus knocking Riserva off the top of the quality pyramid. This wine reminds you why you should take a closer look at Riserva. The bright aromas of dark cherry, spice and tilled earth are fresh and cheerful and are exactly why we are attracted to Chianti Classico in the first place. The blend here is 80% Sangiovese, 15% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged in new and used tonneaux for 18 months. The mouthfeel is slender and fresh, making this a perfect wine for slices of steak, or tagliata, with porcini mushrooms.
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Wine Spectator
An expression of fresh cherry greets the nose in this taut red, yet this remains austere on the palate, with fruit, iron, earth and oak spice flavors bound up in a grip of tannins. Everything is in the right place, but this needs time. Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Best from 2022 through 2042.
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.