Winemaker Notes
Blend: 95% Sangiovese, 5% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Delicious and elegantly structured, this opens with alluring aromas of fragrant blue flower, black-skinned fruit, eucalyptus and espresso. On the savory, focused palate, bright acidity and lithe, fine-grained tannins accompany juicy black cherry, mocha, licorice and crushed mint. Drink through 2028.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Here's an exciting discovery from Castello di Ama. An inaugural vintage, the 2018 Chianti Classico Riserva Montebuoni sources its fruit from a vineyard site planted next to the celebrated Bellavista parcel in 1997. Showing a classic Tuscan spirt that is playful and mischievous, this wine is beautiful and bright with loads of ripe and soft fruit flavors, spanning from cherry to plum and violets to potting soil. The wine is medium-bodied and lean, but it shows enough intensity and freshness to make a really nice and lasting impact on the palate. I can recommend a solid 10-year drinking window for this cheerful bottle.
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Decanter
A brand-new wine for Castello di Ama, Montebuoni comes from a 14.5-hectare vineyard purchased and replanted in 1997. Adjacent to Vigna Bellavista, it sits between 420 and 500 metres above sea level with a northwest to southeast exposure. Immediately inviting ripe cherry and plums are punctuated by a parade of fresh fennel, mint, violet and allspice. Yet the palate is still tightly wound, with grainy tannins taking hold, and very racy acidity on the finish. If this develops as articulately as the nose suggests, it will be a beauty.
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Wine Spectator
Bright black cherry and blackberry flavors highlight this round, fruity red. Lively acidity and fine-grained tannins are integrated and lend support. A touch of earth graces the finish.
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.