Winemaker Notes
Cherry and violet aromas, persistent and rounded flavors of spices and mushroom. Great structure with elegant finesse.
Pairs well with meats and meat pasta sauces, poultry and hard cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A firm and lightly chewy wine with blueberry, currant and crushed-stone aromas and flavors. Medium to full body. Flavorful finish. Needs time to soften. Pure sangiovese. New wave. Better after 2020.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Chianti Classico Riserva Nozzole shows a lot of ripe and concentrated fruit followed by sweet oak spice and toast. This wine feels like it has been made with an eye toward international markets, thanks to those soft lines, oak renderings and its richly concentrated fruit. There are plump notes of ripe cherry, blackberry, tobacco and baking spice. Pair this wine with your favorite steak dinner. With 80,000 bottles made, this wine is easy to find and offers great value too.
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Wine Spectator
High-toned aromas of violet and black cherry are accented by vanilla in this rich red. Assertive tannins gird the finish as the acidity keeps the bright fruit flavors focused and long. Steely yet ripe, this finds good equilibrium in the end. Best from 2022 through 2033.
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.