Casa Emma Chianti Classico Gran Selezione 2015
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James
Suckling -
Wine
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Robert
Parker - Decanter
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Good ripeness to this red, which shows fruit cake, cedar, tobacco and dried cherries and plums. Full-bodied and chewy with plenty of wood showing through, but the driven acidity is more than capable of handling it. Layered and long on the finish. Drink from 2022.
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Wine Spectator
A dose of new oak and pipe tobacco marks the aroma here, backed by flavors of black cherry, plum and iron. Firm and compact on the finish, with a lingering essence of woodsy, tobacco and spice elements. There's a lot going on here, but this needs time. Best from 2022 through 2040.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione offers a streamlined and well-integrated expression of Sangiovese with warm-vintage aromas of tilled earth and savory spice that serve to the give the wine more padding and volume at the back. Light spice flavors do a great job of framing all that dense, black fruit. Try it with some grilled skewers of liver, onion and tomato.
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Decanter
This hails from southeast-facing parcels at 450 to 500 metres on schistose soil. Selected bunches are marked during the ripening season and left until the beginning of October to harvest. After a 30-day maceration the wine is transferred to 10hl Austrian barrels. The aromas are still slightly raw, leading with cherry bark, vanilla and balsamic herb. The palate is more fluid and open, demonstrating integrated wood and tannins with some lovely elegance and minerality underneath.
Other Vintages
2018-
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Robert
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James
Suckling
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Enthusiast
The Bucalossi family bought the estate from the Florentine noblewoman Emma Bizzarri. They have maintained the name “Casa Emma” respecting the historical roots of the land.
The particular attention paid to the terroir allows Casa Emma to offer a range of Chianti Classico, Chianti Classico Riserva and Soloìo (single grape Super-Tuscan Merlot). At the heart of Chianti Classico territory, at an altitude of 1380 feet above sea level, the vineyards of Casa Emma are a classic example of the charms of the Chianti countryside.
Casa Emma grows a number of “non-local” grape varieties, such as Merlot or other more traditional varieties such as Malvasia and Canaiolo, but the principal variety used is Sangiovese, one of the oldest Italian grape varieties forming the very foundation of traditional Chianti and Chianti Classico wines.
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.