Winemaker Notes
The wine is garnet-red colored. Intense spicy and red fruity notes on the nose. One is immediately impressed by the wine's power and strength. The marly and clayey soil lends the wine remarkable savouriness and persistence. The tertiary notes, of aromatic herbs blended with Spanish broom and fennel, are typical of the Chianti Classico zone. High acidity, due to the winery's altitude, which ensures ageing potential. The fine but firm tannins make this wine the perfect pair with traditional Tuscan meat-based dishes, such as game.
Blend: 90% Sangiovese, 7% Canaiolo, 3% Colorino
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Packaged in a bottle with a black label, the organic Monteraponi 2020 Chianti Classico Riserva Il Campitello is Sangiovese with smaller parts Canaiolo and Colorino. The vines are older for this wine, reaching 55 years of age, and the soils at Il Campitello site offer an even mix of limestone alberese and schist-clay galestro. These conditions naturally set this wine up for both elegance and structural power, and this warm vintage delivers on both, with perhaps more emphasis on the power. It's a lovely wine from one of the best estates in the appellation.
Disenchanted with Italian winemaking laws in the 1970s, a few rebellious Tuscan winemakers decided to get creative. Instead of following tradition, to bottle Sangiovese by itself, they started blending it with international varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah in differing proportions and with amazing success. However, some Tuscan Blends don’t even include Sangiovese. Somm Secret—The suffix –aia in Italian modifies a word in much the same way –y acts in English. For example, a place with many stones (sassi) becomes Sassicaia. While not all Super Tuscan producer names end in –aia, they all share a certain coy nomenclature.
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.