Winemaker Notes
Blend: 80% Sangiovese, 20% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A spicy Chianti Classico Riserva showing dried red plums, dried roses, mahogany, forest floor, cedar, white truffles, wet earth and leather. But it’s all so fresh and delightful. The palate’s so focused and refined as the firm, wonderfully savory tannins dance between layers of dried fruit, which remains so pure due to the wealth of punchy acidity. Hints of orange rind on the long finish. Like a baby Brunello.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Brancaia usually adds a little Merlot (20%) to this wine to soften and flesh out the crisp tightness that comes from Sangiovese. The 2015 Chianti Classico Riserva is a beautiful wine that plays its best cards in terms of mouthfeel. The bouquet is beautiful as well, with dark fruit nuances that are layered tight. You get wild cherries and red rose petal in generous supply. The mouthfeel is light to medium in texture, but it shows more smoothness and silkiness compared to many of its peers. Some 60,000 bottles were produced.
Rating: 92+ -
Wine Spectator
Deep and dark, boasting black cherry, blackberry, tar and sweet spice notes. The firm structure is both supportive and refreshing, lending balance as this plays out on the long aftertaste.
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.