Winemaker Notes
A great match with grilled meat, roast or braised beef and veal, stewed dishes, grilled fish and pasta dishes with strong tasting sauces.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has a darker character with toasted spices and walnuts with ripe dark cherries and currants on offer. Medium- to full-bodied and firm with linear tannins and steady acidity. Focused and structured with a long, straight finish. A little chewy at the end. From organically grown grapes.
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Wine Spectator
A pretty red, this boasts cherry, strawberry, rose, mineral and wild herb aromas and flavors. Straddles the fence between elegant and powerful, with the firm structure and vibrant acidity keeping this focused and long. Sangiovese and Merlot. Best from 2025 through 2045.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A saturated ruby/magenta color, the 2020 Chianti Classico Riserva is loaded with floral and ripe fruit notes, opening to aromas of crushed violets, blackberry, black cherry, sweet potting soil, pine sap, and crushed sage. It’s full-bodied on the palate, with ripe tannins, mouthwatering mineral earth, and modest acidity. It brings umami richness and hints of shitake hovering underneath, begging to come through with more bottle age. It will do well to cellar another year or two.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Chianti Classico Riserva is a smooth and supple wine with plenty of dark fruit, cherry and toasted spice that reflects a warm growing season. All of these organic wines from Brancaia are impeccably put together and show no hard edges thanks to careful fruit maturity and oak aging. This Riserva has sweet tannins over a mid-weight finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Cherries, wet stones, graphite and balsamic vinegar on the nose with just a hint of soil and wild herbs lead onto a palate that's more stony and red cherry, finished with a fresh, herbal burst of mint and fennel.
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.