Poggio Bonelli Chianti Classico Riserva 2016
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Pair with grilled and roast meat, and mature cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A meaty Chianti Classico Riserva that displays undergrowth, red-cherry cake, earth and brambles. Full-bodied and quite chewy, this wine’s strong suit is its wealth of dried red fruit and juicy acidity, as well as tannin combination. Drink from 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Aged for 24 months in tonneaux, the 2016 Chianti Classico Riserva shows a very smooth and velvety quality of fruit. Lots of brooding black fruits are expertly woven into spice and savory notes of leather and moist earth. The wine shows medium intensity and build in the mouth. It's great for a Sunday pot roast. Fruit for this wine comes from the highest part of a single-vineyard parcel.
Other Vintages
2015-
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
Sought after by the most prestigious noble families of Siena, the Poggio Bonelli estate was run by different owners over the course of centuries. The property was in the hands of the ancient Spennali family throughout the Middle Ages. Later on, in the second half of the 16th century, Poggio Bonelli was included in the possessions of the prominent Piccolomini family.
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the land was probably passed down to the Landucci family by way of dowry or inheritance. The Crocis and the Landuccis together managed the Poggio Bonelli estate well into the 20th century, finally leaving it to the capable hands of the Real Estate company of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
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.