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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Wine Enthusiast
The super savory, almost briny nose crackles with aromas of seaweed, low tide, salt and pepper. The palate adds some fruit with notes of black cherries and blackberries, but that saltiness also lingers in a deep foundation of tangy earth fortified by textured tannins.
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Wine Spectator
A dark and complex wine with a nose of graphite, leather, dark cherries and plums. Medium-bodied, it shows quite austere, grainy tannins with crisp acidity and a lean finish. Drink or hold.
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.