Castello di Volpaia Chianti Classico Riserva 2018
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Product Details
Winemaker Notes
The Chianti Classico Riserva has a ruby-red hue with a trace of garnet. The nose is elegant, displaying hints of spice and fruit. This a well-structured wine with smooth tannins and a long finish.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Produced since 1967, Volpaia’s Riserva is a selection of bunches from throughout the estate’s 43 hectares in the township of Radda. Due to the slow start in 2018, harvest began a few days later than average, taking place during the first two weeks of October. With purity and precision, strawberry, tobacco, vanilla and forest earth emerge from the glass. This is well-proportioned and balanced in ripeness with a core of concentrated red cherry. Fresh acidity props it up and smooth, rounded tannins frame the whole.
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Wine Enthusiast
Forest floor, leather, pipe tobacco and baked plum aromas shape the nose. The full-bodied, polished palate exhibits dried cherry, licorice and espresso alongside tightly knit, smooth tannins and fresh acidity. Best After 2024.
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Wine Spectator
Marked by ripe, fresh black cherry and black currant fruit, this red is fleshy and bright, with eucalyptus, tobacco and earth accents adding detail as this winds down on the solidly built finish.
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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.