Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Inky and raw, but in the best way. This is an unbridled, unchained monster of a Chianti, one with impeccable depth and extraction but also one that doesn’t sit on your palate like dead weight. Racy acids and firm tannins work in tandem to prop up the bulky dark fruit, creating a structured, delicious mass. Drink from 2007 through 2015.
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Wine Spectator
A powerful and rich red, with blackberry, milk chocolate and cherry character. Full and soft.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Chianti Classico Castello di Brolio offers up rich, textured dark fruit in a succulent style that is very appealing. French oak gives the Castello di Brolio notable volume and body, in addition to an attractive smokiness that works quite nicely in this vintage. The Castello di Brolio can be enjoyed today for its forward fruit or cellared for another decade or so. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2020.
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.