Winemaker Notes
This riserva is a brilliant ruby red color with garnet highlights. On the nose aromas of cherries, red plums, and currants are layered over notes of earth, rose petals, and leather. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied showing excellent structure with firm, integrated tannins and plenty of spice on the long finish.
Pair this wine with grilled red meats, bordelaise sauces, Bistecca alla Fiorentina, and butter-poached veal shank.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dense aromas of dark plums and black fruit on the nose, as well as some aromatic oak. Medium-bodied with a lovely core of fruit-soaked, velvety tannins, providing good focus and length. This is pleasant to drink now, but will age nicely, too. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Rich and evoking cherry, raspberry, iron and spice flavors, this red is backed by vibrant acidity and dense tannins. Balanced and brimming with energy on the long finish. Should hit its stride in two to three more years. Sangioveto, Canaiolo and Ciliegiolo. Best from 2025 through 2043.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This release of 15,000 bottles is among the most pleasantly accessible wines in this portfolio from Castellare di Castellina. The 2020 Chianti Classico Riserva Il Poggiale shows soft fruit, cherry, blue flower and sweet potting soil. The wine is texturally rich but not heavy, and these native Italian grapes always have a lot of fresh acidity on offer, even in a vintage like 2020 that was characterized by hot summer weather.
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Wine Enthusiast
Fresh and cooked cherries soaked in vibrant aromas of blood orange on the nose recall a cherry tart that is fully realized on the palate, with notes of vanilla and chocolate and a velvety texture that lingers on the palate.
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.