Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
An enticing red, with smoky black cherry and blackberry flavors stitched into a supple texture. Reveals iron, sanguine, earth and juniper details as this unwinds on the lingering finish. Elegant overall, despite the firm structure. Best from 2025 through 2045.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Chianti Classico Riserva Vigna Bugialla pours a deeper magenta/purple hue compared to the 2021 and is more primary and fruit forward in the glass with notes of blackberry, violets, blue fruit, and balsamic herbs. This full-bodied red is rounded through the palate, with a velvety texture, modest acidity, and a ripe finish. Showing the warmth of the vintage and dark mineral underpinnings, it should drink well over the coming 8-10 years. Comparing it to the 2021, it has more depth and maybe not quite the same aging potential, but it has a good deal to offer more immediately.
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.