Winemaker Notes
Pair this wine with Korean short ribs, ragù sauces, gnocchi with roasted rabbit, and beef negimaki.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very beautiful and fresh riserva with blackcurrant, blackberry and dark-chocolate aromas and flavors with some almond. Medium-bodied with firm tannins and a fresh finish. From organically grown grapes.
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Decanter
The Bacci family bought this centuries-old estate in 1998, and Alberto Antonini has been the consulting enologist for almost as long. A selection of lots from the estate’s extensive vineyards in Castelnuovo Berardenga, the Riserva presents a particularly earthy nose of truffle, sweet damp earth and iron. On the palate, subtle black raspberry is inflected with tea and tobacco, and the oak is understated and sophisticated. What this may lack in sheer concentration, it makes up for in its fluid gait and assertiveness of structure. A natural with mushroom risotto.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A certified organic wine, the 2019 Chianti Classico Riserva Berardo offers bright aromas of dried cherry, forest berry, sweet spice and cinnamon. With fruit from beautiful Castelnuovo Berardenga on the southern side of the appellation, this wine shows medium-rich concentration and good texture with savory oak-driven elements.
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.