Winemaker Notes
Dark purple with flashes of ruby. Balanced intensity the nose, invitingly rich fruitiness with notes of dark cherry, prune and blackberry, held together with notes of mentholated balsamic, tobacco and licorice.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Blackberries, dark mushrooms and dried flowers with some hot stones. It’s full-bodied with chewy, polished tannins and a long, intense finish. Very structured and well done. One for the cellar. Try after 2024.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Part of a six-wine vertical tasting of the Monna Lisa cuvée, the 2017 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Monna Lisa is a youthful deep ruby color and is lush and spicy on the nose with aromas of with baked cherries, pie spice, forest herbs, and toasted cedar. It fills the palate with full-bodied richness, though it’s not heavy, and offers plush ripe tannins and a lightly dusty finish. It handles the warmth of the vintage, while offering the richness and concentration with a balanced feel.
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Decanter
Mellowed nose of blackberry, dark cherries, licorice and creamy oak. Gravelly-textured tannins supported by crunchy fruit.
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.