Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Lots of ripe fruit with plum, berry, chocolate and walnut character. Such pretty, creamy tannins. It’s full-bodied and intense with gorgeous fruit and a flavorful finish. Very serious and finely crafted. Che bello! Drink after 2022.
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Wine Spectator
Balsamic aromas and flavors of juniper, rosemary, sage and loamy earth give way to plum, cherry and iron notes in this dry, powerful red. Burly tannins complete the package. The lasting impression is of ripe fruit, showing some heat in the balance. This screams terroir and needs time to find equilibrium. Best from 2023 through 2045.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is an elegant and graceful wine. The Castello di Monsanto 2015 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigneto Il Poggio is a dark and sultry expression that maintains the polished and sophisticated house style for which this estate is known. This top shelf Sangiovese shows a slightly sweet side with dried raspberry and blueberry, but it also delivers a lot of freshness with balsam herb, blue flower, rosemary and cypress tree.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of scorched soil, coconut, star anise and baked plum form the nose. Showing the heat of the vintage, the smooth, ripe palate is already soft and accessible, offering fleshy black cherry, tobacco and roasted coffee bean alongside polished tannins. Drink or hold through 2025.
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.