Winemaker Notes
Brilliant ruby red color. On the nose notes of blackberries, leather, cherries and red currants with a touch of licorice, graphite and tobacco. Sweet and persistent tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2022 Chianti Classico Riserva Bugialla is gorgeous. Black cherry, new leather, spice, menthol and licorice fill out the layers effortlessly. A wine of structure and palate presence, the 2022 deftly balances power and finesse. It’s a superb wine, especially for a year marked by intense drought. All the Poggerino signatures are front and center.
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Decanter
For his Riserva, Piero Lanzo makes a selection of the smallest bunches on the vines and harvests these last. His objective is intensity rather body or structure, yet the 2022 achieves all three in harmony. With enticing scents of mocha, mint and tarragon to begin, Bugialla progresses with rich, mouthcoating layers of dark cherry and grenadine. Blood orange and minerals are tucked in too. Waves of tactile powdery tannins add to the charge before brilliant acidity cleanses the palate. Alas, there won’t be a 2023 bottling as all the fruit from Bugialla went into the spectacular annata.
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Wine Spectator
This red starts out supple and elegant, exuding black cherry, blackberry, earth and spice flavors, before turning compact, with dense, assertive tannins on the finish. Needs a few years for its two sides to integrate.
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.