Winemaker Notes
Perfect to accompany pasta with meat sauce and game. It is also ideal with aged cheeses such as pecorino.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Cherry compote, floral and spicy nose. Palate reprises the nose with smooth, velvety tannins and a mineral touch on the long finish. An excellent release.
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Wine Spectator
A ripe, vibrant version, boasting black cherry, blackberry, violet, graphite and toasted spice notes. Firm, leaving mouthcoating, dusty tannins, yet remains lively and fresh. Best from 2021 through 2035.
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James Suckling
Beautiful aromas of oranges, tangerines and white flowers. Full body, velvety tannins and a fresh and fine finish. Shows focus and linear beauty.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Chianti Classico Riserva Vigna Casi renders a faithful interpretation of the Gaiole in Chianti subzone, where wines tend to show elegant but somewhat wild characteristics with prominent aromas of blue flowers and moist earth. You get plenty of aromatic intensity here, but this warm vintage has definitely added a sweet and succulent signature to this single-vineyard Riserva. Dark fruit, tobacco and leather add weight and substance to the mid-weight mouthfeel. The $24 retail price is what the wine sells for at the little shop in front of the estate.
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.