Winemaker Notes
The Castello di Ama San Lorenzo has a remarkable ability to evolve, developing aromatic complexity and exemplary intensity over time. This wine is dark ruby-red and the nose is fruity with notes of strawberry, red cherries, orange zest, and liquorice. It also has tertiary hints of leather. On the palate, it is silky and supple-textured, succulent and juicy. Ripe red fruit persists, complemented by firm yet delicate tannins. The finish is lively with dark red fruit, wet ground, and wood.
Blend: 80% Sangiovese; 13% Merlot, 7% Malvasia Nera
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Aromas of black cherries with flowers and sliced dried oranges. Medium-bodied with very tight tannins and a firm and racy finish. Shows polish yet strength. Give this at least four or five years to open.
-
Vinous
The 2020 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Castello di Ama San Lorenzo is fabulous. It offers up a compelling mix of blackberry, graphite, crushed rocks, spice, lavender and black pepper, showing striking inner sweetness, gorgeous mid-palate pliancy and mid-blowing balance, all in a medium-bodied style that will be approachable with minimal cellaring. San Lorenzo remains an archetype for contemporary Chianti Classico. Production is down about 30% in 2020 because of stringent selection.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made with a selection of the best estate Sangiovese (with a hint of Merlot and Malvasia Nera) from across various parcels, the Castello di Ama 2020 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione San Lorenzo is chiseled and dark with a through-line of dark mineral and crushed rock. That dry mineral note forms a precise frame around dark fruit and oak spice. The wine has drying tannins and a long, polished finish.
-
Wine Spectator
A ripe style, boasting plum, blackberry and pomegranate flavors, shaded by iron, wild herbs and spice accents. Linear, despite the luscious fruit, with a firm underpinning of tannins lining the extended finish. Sangiovese and Merlot. Best from 2026 through 2043. 500 cases imported.
-
Decanter
Produced since 2010, San Lorenzo is Ama’s big brother, crafted from older, less vigorous vines throughout the estate’s historic vineyards. Its role is to give a panoramic expression of the vintage at this high altitude property in Gaiole. A fragrant mix of dusty Mediterranean vegetation ranges from tarragon and fennel to camomile and lavender. Accents of spicy oak seep through to the palate, where plush plum flecked with cocoa melds into supple, velvety tannins. The acidity has a citrussy ring, and sneaky, salty minerals lend an additional tang. This midweight beauty is gracious and engaging now.
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.