Winemaker Notes
This wine is rich and striking with aromas and flavors of blackberry, balsamic hints, cedar, tobacco, plums, and fruit cake. Mouthfeel is persistent with chewy tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Pretty aromas of violet, kirsch, raspberry and black currant herald this elegant, vibrant red, which is firmly built, with a supple texture offsetting dusty tannins. Approachable now for its balance and fruit, but this should age well too. Best from 2023 through 2040.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione represents a selection of Sangiovese grapes from the areas with the highest limestone content and the most stones to loosen up the soils. These conditions are especially favorable to Tuscany's finicky Sangiovese. This expression (with 15,000 bottles made) shows dried cherry, lots of dusty earth and black plum. The wine offers a pleasing medium to full-bodied style.
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James Suckling
Lots of sweet berries and cherries with just a hint of jam. Full-bodied with round, medium-chewy tannins and lots of fruit. A little one-dimensional and tight right now, but should age nicely. Try after 2023.
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.