Winemaker Notes
This Chianti Classico Gran Selezione has an intense ruby red color with purple hues. A combination of a dense structure and elegance, strength and finesse. Well balanced and harmonious to the palate, with a very pleasant taste and sweetness due to the velvety and ripe tannins. An outstanding flavor wrapped in elegant softness with aromas of sour black cherry, prune, balsamic with sweet spices, cinnamon, and cloves. Very long final persistence.
This wine pairs well with traditional cold cuts: salami and matured sheep and cow cheeses. Roasted white and red meats, pasta with traditional game meat sauces or heavy creamy sauces.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Complex nose of earthy berries, blood oranges and dried plums with hints of tar, black tea and new leather. A juicy and linear Chianti Classico Gran Selezione, despite the structured, full-bodied palate. Tight, very integrated and complete with a savory yet fresh and mineral finish. Delicious to drink now, but will hold well.
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Decanter
One of two Gran Selezione, Vigna del Capannino represents the warmer side of the Bibbiano estate. The vineyard faces southwest on schist soil over clay. While this is its usual brooding self, it's less overtly ripe than the 2018. It starts diffused and smoky then gains focus with perfumed incense and dried potpourri scents. Vertical in profile, plum and cherry cling to firm, finessed tannins. The structure builds but does not become muscular. While showing appealing earth and mineral now, Capannino needs time to unfurl.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The organic 2019 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigna del Capannino is a second careful single-vineyard selection from this leading estate based in Castellina in Chianti. I love the broad intensity of this wine and all the velvety cherry, blackberry and plum it awards. There is a pleasing, almost decadent quality to this wine, yet it remains elegant and within the more constrained framework of Sangiovese. That means it shows good depth and freshness too.
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Wine Spectator
A solidly built red, featuring cherry and kirsch flavors framed by earth, thyme and mineral notes. Taut and intense, building to a long fruity and black pepper-flecked aftertaste. Combines finesse and energy. Best from 2024.
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Wine & Spirits
Lively warm spice notes round out the edges of lightly tart cherry-and-raspberry flavors. The tannins feel cool and polished, the flavors brightened by a tangy orange peel twist on the finish.
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.