Winemaker Notes
This is a sensual wine with notes of cherry fruit, tobacco, leather and hints of licorice and spice. The elegant tannins balance nicely with the fruit, all underlined by a fabulous stratum of acidity, making this a complex wine with incontestable structure and power. A long and satisfying finish confirms this Sangiovese is true to its terroir.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This is tightly wound, fresh and austere now, its cherry, almond, mineral and tobacco flavors compressed. Hard to see where this is going, yet no one element sticks out, so the potential is fine. Best from 2023 through 2040.
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James Suckling
A spicy and decadent Chianti Classico that shows plenty of dried cherries, vanilla, mahogany and bark. Full-bodied with integrated but drying tannins, some good acidity and a round, fruit-driven finish. Drink from 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Montebello Sette feels just as important as it sounds. It offers big, mature and dense fruit that you can chew on. This pure Sangiovese carries itself with great fullness, generous fruit and nicely integrated tannins, and it begs for a steak au poivre. You can't overstate the thickness and softness here. Some 15,000 bottles were produced.
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Wine & Spirits
The Tolaini estate sits in Chianti Classico’s southernmost commune of Castelnuovo Berardenga, where the clayladen soils produced a velvety Gran Selezione in the warm and dry 2015 vintage. The wine, a pure sangiovese, unfolds with flavors of black cherry and dark plum accented by notes of toasted nuts and sweet spice gained during 18 months in French oak barriques. Hints of cherry pit and roasted mushroom lend a savory balance to the rich fruit and oak flavors.
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.