Winemaker Notes
Intense ruby red with violet nuances. A complexnose with sour cherry, ripe blackberry, and cassis withundertones of cinnamon, nutmeg, and freshly ground pepper.On the palate, soft and fresh, with the alcohol rounding out theharshness of the tannins. Finishes with a long, toasted note. Willage well for more than ten years.
Blend: 90% Sangiovese, 5% Merlot, 5% Syrah
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The blue fruit comes through here with a cool stone and dry-earth character. It’s full-bodied and tight with serious tension and structure. A little austere, but very serious. Drink after 2021.
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Wine Spectator
Supple, exuding cherry, blackberry, violet, graphite and tobacco flavors. Succulent, this moves spryly across the palate, ending with a dusting of tannins. Shows fine balance and length. Best from 2021 through 2040.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Viticcio 2016 Chianti Classico Riserva is another wine that portrays the crispness and brightness of this vintage with ease. This cool growing season is known for the sharpness and clean linearity of its fruit, with firm structure and good freshness. You get all these qualities here alongside plenty of cherry, blackcurrant and easy spice. Get your Tuscan on here and whip up a pappardelle all'aretino with a slow-cooked meat sauce.
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.