Winemaker Notes
Pairs well with grilled meats, white truffles, stews and aged cheese.
Blend: 95% Sangiovese, 5% Canaiolo and Colorino
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Lots of blackberry pie, vanilla, cedar, blackcurrants, dried lemon peel, blueberries and meatier elements that lurk beneath the very fine notes of blue fruit. Very layered with grippy tannins, which fall into just the right degree of ripeness. The tannins run around the full body that is brought to life by the acidity that pierces right through to the long finish. Drink in 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Il Picchio opens to dark density and an inky appearance. The bouquet delivers thick fruit aromas of dried blackberry, prune and plum. You taste the heat and the sunny nature of the vintage, thanks to all that abundant and exuberant fruit. This blend of 95% Sangiovese and 5% other red grapes (aged in oak for 12 months) is linear and austere in terms of palate with firm tannins and a sharp, mid-weight delivery.
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Decanter
First produced as a single vineyard bottling in 1998, Il Picchio comes from a 4.5ha plot rising up to 450 metres above sea level. It represents the winery's newer plantings, at a density of 7,500 vines per hectare. Ageing is in French barriques and tonneaux. It's quite reductive on the nose, but the deeply coloured hue matches the power on the palate. Along with lots of stuffing and grip there is good freshness, but ultimately this wine seems to emphasise style over place.
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.