Winemaker Notes
Bright red color with purple reflections. Fresh scent, complex with intense fruit reminiscent of the scents of red berry fruit such as cherry, currants, blackberry and raspberry. The spicy notes lead back to licorice, cloves, cinnamon, pepper and dark chocolate with a vanilla finish. The taste is warm and enveloping with elegant tannins.
Pair with bisteca alla Fiorentina and Pecorino Gran Riserva cheese.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Savory, meaty spices, bacon fat and some leather to the cherry fruit. The medium- to full-bodied palate has lots of juicy berry fruit and some blood oranges to offer. Tannins are tight yet savory. Drink now but can hold, too.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Castelvecchi 2018 Chianti Classico Riserva Lodolaio (with 15,000 bottles made) shows the elegance and pleasantly downplayed character of this vintage that started cool and ended on a much warmer note. The aromas have turned toward a slightly more complex side with cherry liqueur, licorice, earthy iris root and candied apricot. Dark concentration and a generous, mid-weight style define the mouthfeel. The wine is true to Sangiovese, and fruit comes from the estate's highest vineyards.
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Wine Enthusiast
Fresh strawberries drizzled with balsamic vinegar and topped with toasted fennel seeds on the nose lead to a palate of more strawberries with cherries and sour plums and salty, savory notes of crushed rocks and road paving.
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.