Winemaker Notes
This very elegant wine has an intense ruby red color with garnet hues. The structure is dense with ripe and sweet tannins, accompanied by a lively freshness and persistent flavor with aromas of cherry and sour black cherry, ripe red fruits with hints of underbrush. A very well-balanced acid strength-giving freshness and pleasure; excellent flavor and interesting long persistence.
Pair with white and red meats, pasta with traditional game meat sauces in white or with tomato paste, salami and ham (prosciutto), matured sheep and cow cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Notes of eucalyptus and juniper mesh with black cherry, plum, black pepper and tar flavors in this powerful red, which is firm, fresh and balanced, picking up a mineral element on the long finish. Best from 2023 through 2045.
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Wine & Spirits
Bibbiano elevated this wine from Riserva to Gran Selezione in the 2014 vintage. The estate is located in Chianti Classico’s southern sector, where the clay soils tend to give powerful wines, but the Montornello vineyard has a northeast exposure and lighter, limestone-rich albarese soils that yielded a bright, high-toned wine in 2016. Raspy tannins frame its flavors of crunchy cherry and cranberry, notes of orange zest and cool green tree-sap highlighting its lean lines.
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.