Winemaker Notes
Crafted to capture the fruity flavors and bouquet of a young Chianti. Shows great balance and drinkability with a lively acidity to pair with a wide range of foods. An outstanding Chianti Classico which reflects the terroir and traditional varieties, Sangiovese and Canaiolo.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A layered wine with bright red cherries, dried cherries, sweet violets and a lot of licorice on the nose. Medium-bodied and very supple and refreshing on the palate, with lightly framed tannins and a crunchy finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made with 90% Sangiovese and 10% Canaiolo, the Isole e Olena 2022 Chianti Classico has soft fruit and cherry with light spice and a hint of Tuscany rosemary or laurel leaf. I like the vibrant and lively quality of fruit in a vintage that also delivers ample ripeness.
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Vinous
The 2022 Chianti Classico is an elegant, gracious wine. Silky tannins frame a core of bright red-toned fruit, rose petal, cinnamon and blood orange. The Chianti Classico is 90% Sangiovese and 10% Canaiolo. The Syrah, once one of founder Paolo De Marchi's quirky touches with this wine, is gone.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
Tuscany offers some of the world's classic and delicious wines! For decades, I have enjoyed the Isole e Olena wines. The winery's 2020 Chianti Classico is beautifully built and well layered on the palate, and it deserves a place at your dinner table. This wine offers aromas and flavors of savory spices, blackberries, and fragrant herbs. Enjoy it with a rosemary and garlic-infused roast leg of lamb. (Tasted: December 13, 2024, San Francisco, CA)
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.