Winemaker Notes
Ruby red with garnet reflections. Perfumes of ripe fruit, aromatic herbs and spicy and peppery notes. Full, complex and persistent mouthfeel with soft tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This rich red is signaled by earth and tar aromas, with flavors of black cherry, plum and iron standing up to a dense matrix of tannins. Shows breadth and power, with an aftertaste of dark fruit, earth and soy. Best from 2024 through 2037.
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James Suckling
Orange peel, grilled herbs, raspberries, cloves and sun-dried tomatoes on the nose. Some salted-almond notes, too. Medium-bodied with firm, lightly dusty tannins. Stony at the end. Better after 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Castello di Meleto 2019 Chianti Classico Riserva (made with 95% Sangiovese and 5% Merlot aged in equal parts French and Slavonian oak) boasts sleek new packaging. With 80,000 bottles produced, this delicate wine shows an easy and transparent quality of fruit with fresh cherry, cassis, earth and spice. This Riserva also shows elegant floral tones over a mid-weight close.
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.