Twenty-four mind-blowing wines of 2024

Dec27

‘Tis an exercise performed year after year, a word processor’s per annum distillation to say thank you and recognize game. To consistently act as messenger, be conscious of hard work filed and to celebrate that excellence. The first list was conceived more than 10 years ago, now peaking at its current number with twenty-four mind-blowing wines chosen for 2024. Travels to fluctuating destinations mean from year to year wine regions will carry different weight and the list abides by the variance. In 2023 Bordeaux played a significant role, as did South Africa and Washington in 2022, Bourgogne in 2019, and so on. The rules of engagement never change but evolution plays its part, priorities pivot and you never can say or tell what sorts of matters will strike deep into the heart.

Last one standing (sitting and tasting) at the Chianti Classico Collection 2024

Godello needs to make a confession, shed some honesty, clear the air. He admits to a love for writing tasting notes and needing to do it, especially when a potentially mind-blowing wine is in the glass and what follows flows forth as a stream of consciousness, ending only when the creative tap closes naturally. When these notes are edited weeks or even months later there is the incredulous feeling of “how did this get written – where did these words come from?” They just did, from right out of the wellspring of creativity, but Godello does not know how he came to write those notes – as if they were magically written. Paragraphs woven from dots and thoughts for unsuspecting connections between writings and wine, such as “Ribelle è colui che si distingue.” Translated as, or better yet in reference to “the rebel is the one who recognizes the unjust law and breaks free from it,” from Ernst Jünger’s 1951 “The Rebel’s Treatise.” The German philosopher, essayist and WWII captain was once called die Burgunderszene because he watched a bombing raid in Paris while sipping Burgundy. The stylish supervillain of twentieth-century German literature’s disquisition shared dire and prophetic words on what a future world would be, in what he called the “Age of the Titans.”

Godello beneath a massive Tuscan Mazza di Tamburo/Parasol Mushroom

Or this. “The label represents the position of the vines in coordinates, echoed in the machicolations of a sangiovese that drops all the stones on unsuspecting palates through fruit openings between supporting acid corbels of a projecting tannic parapet.” Where did that come from? Or simply, “who needs fruit when you have rocks?”

ColleMassari

More than rugs tie rooms together – lyrics, song titles, movie quotes, literary passages, exchanges between a journalist and a poet, thinker, writer, actor or composer – they are all a part of the masala. Reminds of a 2021 interview with a reluctant prophet. “Try to sit down and write something like that – there’s a magic to that and it’s not Siegfried & Roy kinda magic you know, it’s a different kind of penetrating magic.” All kidding comparisons aside with Bob Dylan’s answers to Ed Bradley in that famous 60 minutes exchange, but they may just be artistic words to live by. And why Godello? “You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free.” As for the relevance of wine tasting notes, sure it feels like being “a wordsmith from bygone days,” but it still feels right. And necessary. And unavoidable. A bottomless pit of cultural oblivion? No, not that. Tasting notes tell stories that need to be told. Relayed by messengers fulfilling a destiny to visit and break bread with good people making great wines and in turn agreeing to relay their tales. Tasting notes are the chronicles, expressed as narrative, of anecdotes woven through prose. If there is a better way to say what needs to be said it has not yet been found.

Chianti Classico’s Cento Anni

As of today’s date and the publishing of this year-end list Godello has reviewed 4,225 wines. If the origins of said wines were to be separated into categories than the breakdown would be as follows. Thirty percent would be from the LCBO’s VINTAGES release program, 24 percent for WineAlign Exchange curation and wine reviewing service, (12) Chianti Classico, (8) Piemonte, (6) Montalcino, (6) Sicilia and the remaining (14) from travels to other parts of Italy and around the world. A smaller part of one percent would be from wines enjoyed with friends, tasting groups, wine agent reps, visiting winemakers and at home. It all adds up to one great pool from which to create this list of 24, a number to represent just slightly more than half of one percent of the wines tasted by Godello in 2024. Here are his twenty-four mind-blowing wines of 2024.

Angelina Franzen – Weingut Franzen

Weingut Franzen Riesling Sterneberg Großes Gewächs 2020, Große Lagen, Mosel

Killian and Angelina Franzen’s best plot in the Neefer Frauenberg is called Sterneberg. Vines were planted in 1938 on grey slate for a different, next level mineral quality and quotient for Mosel riesling. These are own-rooted vines, old, experienced and wise, their resulting dry wine coming away like the desert because sugar and acids near-equal come together seamlessly. The most viscosity and texture of the Franzen rieslings, from a hot vintage and so concentration, unctuousness, flesh, pulp and glissade are all at peak performance. Glorious and confident, outspoken but only to make sure we understand its origins and Franzen abides by its voice. Drink 2024-2033. Tasted March 2024

Caroline Diel – Schlossgut Diel

Schlossgut Diel Dry Riesling Pittermännchen GG 2022, Vdp. Grosses Gewächs

The tiny one hectare cru Pittermännchen is a name that dates to the middle ages with a connection to the people of Köln and Düsseldorf. Grand cru site of weathered grey (Devonian) slate atop Rotliegend conglomerate that dates back several million years. The geo-agricultural texture is small decomposed particles as opposed to the larger stones of the Mosel. Expressive flint stone aromatics undeniably soil related and not much fruit to discuss, save for some variegate currants but you really have to conjure imagination. There is a mille-feuille density to this riesling that peels away and delivers waves in layers without boundaries. Complexities are revealed without pause and dryness results because purity and grip replace the necessity for sugar-acid balance. So stony, long and our palates are held captive. Top shelf riesling within the idiom. Drink 2026-2033. Tasted March 2024

Adega Do Vulcáo (c) entrevinhas.com

Adega Do Vulcáo Ameixâmbar 2022, Açores IG

A seriously volcanic blend of native grapes from two areas, first the ash of the Capelinhos and second the basalt of the Criaçào Velha. Add in the cold Atlantic influence and the result is something extraordinary to potentially mind-blowing. That depends on how much flint struck rock, mineral mouthfuls and deepening trajectories you may or not desire in your endemically-formulated white wines. Ameixambar is just such an animal and the profile, especially noted with verve and lashes upon the palate, is well, remarkable. Nothing else feels or tastes like this wine. Truly salty and there are notes that imagine powder created by crushing many different shells, inclusive of oyster, calm and mussel. You may ask yourself what is this, but you can answer with a simple word, or place. Açores. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted July 2024

Inama I Palchi Grande Cuvée Foscarino Soave Classico DOC 2021

I Palchi, as in the “stages,” a geographical term for a series of wide terraces aboard Monte Foscarino lined with pergolas of old garganega vines. In this case Inama’s highest level of Soave Classico meant to celebrate the ancients. As a surname it belonged to a cleric but also Antonio Foscarini (c. 1570 in Venice – 22 April 1622), member of the Venetian nobility, ambassador to Paris, London and later sentenced to death for high treason by the Council of Ten and executed. Yikes! This Foscarino ode is intended towards grapes and volcanic terroir for a bloody incredible garganega of substance and style. The ’21’s ability to attract and engage the taster’s attention is at the top of the Soave game. Fresh, flinty and wholly engaging. Mind-blowing actually. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted December 2024

Marqués De Murrieta Capellanía Reserva Blanco 2018, Rioja DOCa

Only viura grapes are chosen from a six hectare calcareous clay plot off of 70 year-old vines located at the highest elevation of the Marqués De Murrieta Ygay Estate. The winemaking might well be working with sauvignon blanc and sémillon but with viura the ageing in French barrels takes a turn for the unexpected ethereal. The flinty smoulder is an intoxicant of the most hypnotizing order. The effect upon the palate and all the senes is extraordinary – mesmerizing. So what is Capellanía? In Spain it was a chantry or ecclesiastical endowment, one of several pious works commonly founded during the colonial period. A foundation in which certain assets are subject to the fulfillment of masses and other pious charges. Imaginatively speaking Capellanía is a rarity, monoceros, symbol of grace purity, power and transcendence. Not to mention healing powers and freedom. A unicorn. Drink 2024-2033. Tasted June 2024

Vanessa Cherruau
(c) media.ouest-france.fr

Château De Plaisance Sur La Butte 2021, Anjou AOP

A wildly aromatic two cabernet blend from the Butte de Chaume where some of the finest wines made anywhere come from Chaume, Quarts de Chaume and Savennières. The curiosity and modernist approach is made two-fold by the presence of cabernet sauvignon to stride effortlessly alongside the usual franc. Yes this smells like the Loire but the aromas deliver so much more, in curiosity and intriguing sensations. Anjou in place and temperament but in design this may as well be a contemporary, abstract or Pop Art piece by François Morellet. The two related varieties form an almost intricate geometric pattern in the way they line the palate, so cleanly drawn with mathematical clarity. Yes this is serious Loire red wine but it’s also traceable, pre-minimalist and post conceptual by design. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted April 2024

Godello and Giuseppe Russo

Girolamo Russo Etna Bianco DOC San Lorenzo 2023

San Lorenzo as Bianco from Giuseppe Russo is not like other Etna Bianco because well, San Lorenzo. Wow is the operative because no other EB gives like this. Beyond flesh and stone but something that defines what the two can effect, layered so invisibly and magically together. It seems impossible to believe that extract and conversions could come together this way, urged and supported buy some of the mountain’s finest quality of acidity and white grape tannins. This must be the place, eh? Carricante with 10 percent catarratto and grecanico makes it happen. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted May 2024

With Alphonse Potel – Domaine de Bellene

Domaine De Bellene Vosne Romanée Premier Cru Les Suchots Bourgogne AOC 2022

In the woods as they say, “souches” or here “Suchots,” a 0.2159 hectare block in Vosne-Romanée that hangs a little longer, likely because the forest asks it to. Fresher, high spirited and savoury Bourgogne comes from the vineyard, picked on September 5th, coming away with more phenolic grip and aromatic volume because of the place. Less defined in 2022 perhaps because of a vintage’s great munificence but as far as plots in this area are concerned there are few that will speak as clearly as Les Suchots. Seamless and focused, unique as they come in an era of technical proficiency and expertise. Drink 2026-2038. Tasted August 2024

Marc de Grazia – Tenuta delle Terre Nere

Tenuta Delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso DOC Calderara Sottana 2022

What Marc de Grazia considers to be the finest contrada on the north slope and yet there are micro plots within the eight parcels that can only be made into Rosato in humid vintages. This comes from the oldest vines, more than 80 years old and just one look sees a brightness and transparency inciting the senses as they take in a bouquet not having yet nosed in the other Rossi. Calderara Sottana is the most demure, the finest of sound and vision, the one you take in slowest, without haste, to allow unfurling and length to travel as far as it wishes, evocatively so. “It asks delicate questions,” says de Grazia. “Rose petal perfume and tannins that don’t cut off your palate.” Even more is this elastic meander, not aimless but with purpose and our palates follow every step. Like Giuseppe Russo’s (though de Grazia sees little comparison) this provides the exception to so many Etna Rosso rules. Drink 2027-2038. Tasted September 2024

Collina Serragrilli Barbaresco DOCG Sorì Serragrilli 2021, Neive

Lovely aromatic presence, richly defined fruit of purity and expressiveness, fine and open. Exotic spicing and truly floral of a perfume that keeps one from needing to rush into a sip. The palate does not disappoint in fact it carries off and forward with equal ability to hold attention for as long as a participant is willing to hang around. These are tannins as fine as the sweet and supportive acids that precede them. A really impressive Barbaresco, forthright and a test of qualities held in reserve that can be counted upon for a decade and a half more time. Drink 2026-2037. Tasted blind at Nebbiolo Prima January 2024

With Michela Morris, Nadia and Walter Fissore – Elvio Cogno

Elvio Cogno Barolo DOCG Ravera Bricco Pernice 2019, Novello

The hill within the hill, Bricco Pernice upon Ravera, isolated, insulated and encapsulated for nebbiolo of an insular and implosive intensity that’s likely unparalleled anywhere else in Novello. Closed and not because of vintage but due to time and really that’s about it A broad shouldered and muscular nebbiolo that must be given as much bottle time as it spent in cask, or double that for even better results. That means check back in 2026 or later to see if any part of the tannins have unfolded, unfurled or stretched out for some exercise. Likely not but then some parts will finally have as the decade unwinds. Also it’s normal in January for Pernice to be tight and a bit closed. Oh, by the way this was made with 100 PERCENT WHOLE BUNCH NEBBIOLO. For Barolo. Single vineyard Barolo from a storied MGA. Walter’s mid-life crisis begins right here and it’s glorious. Drink 2029-2045. Tasted January 2024

Nebbiolo Prima 2024

Cavallotto Tenuta Bricco Boschis Barolo DOCG Bricco Boschis 2010, Castiglione Falletto

A top echelon cru, a producer that gets it as well as if not better than the rest and an eponymous label out of a relationship that develops longevity without equal. That would be the thrilling isosceles trilogy of Cavallotto Tenuta Bricco Boschis, Bricco Boschis and Barolo. Their 2010 is as youthful as any nebbiolo of this age, striking, rising, invigorating and still working through its operations. A performance piece of varietal for landscape as the most terroir driven Barolo as any of the best in the land can be. A triangle of Castiglione Falletto that speaks in unequivocal terms, fruit, acid and tannin intertwined, five years of this life still laid out ahead, 10 further for curiosity and interest beyond. Truth. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted January 2024

Poggio Lombrone, Tenuta di Montecucco

Collemassari Montecucco Sangiovese Riserva DOCG Poggio Lombrone 2018

I walked this vineyard only recently upon arriving to the Castello di Montecucco at the advent of a blue-lit twilight on the second Sunday in November. The impression was a captivating one, from the site, its undulating slopes casting a strong and forceful presence. Poggio Lombrone was first made in 2007 and ColleMassari’s voice was instrumental in securing the DOCG for Montecucco sangiovese. A special vineyard with older plant material than just about anywhere in Montecucco, upwards of 60 years now and THE place to promote the authenticity, but also to preserve the local savoir-faire that distinguishes Montecucco sangiovese. Longest ager in Riserva togs because of potential, a wine of località Cinigiano fermented for at least 30 days (and 45 in 2016) in open Gamba casks with daily (hand) punchdowns to realize a production of 9,000-10,000 bottles. Ages in only two or three year-old grandi botti but not in really old casks. French of a few years are ideal to seek and attain the desired elegance. The 2018 is a strong version of varietal independence off of the Lombrone hillside, upright and linear yet never found to be awkward, though it is a wine of tannic charge. Fine tannins in fact with good energetic pulse, still needing more integration, its ceiling set ultra high. Drink 2026-2033. Tasted November 2024

Michael Schmelzer – Monte Bernardi, Panzano

Monte Bernardi Chianti Classico DOCG MB1933 2021, Panzano

From the 90 year-old vigorous vineyard and insists Michael Schmelzer, “it would be insane to make it not the way it was planted.” Ten grapes which add up to a 100 percent field blend that may include sangiovese, colorino rosso, colorino bianco, malvasia nera, canaiolo and ciliegiolo. Once again the respect to agricultural heritage and long maceration conspire for complexities and flavours that most people don’t associate with Chianti Classico. If this is what the old farmers were producing then quality was actually a thing, at least in 1933. MB is Marcello Bartolini, teacher and mentor who just retired in December 2023. Crunchy, tart, red citrus intensity and a char of herbs. Perhaps not quite a unicorn but surely one of the most singular wines made in the entirety of the Chianti Classico territory. If classic is also a thing than this would be it but what it is not is Riserva, or Gran Selezione. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted February 2024

Monsanto, San Donato in Poggio

Castello Di Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 1982

One of the great vintages for Chianti Classico, in all of Tuscany, most of Italy and as everyone knows, also Bordeaux. At this point the 100 percent large Slavonian cask aging is in full swing for wood with which Fabrizio Bianchi began replacing his old chestnut barrels back in the early 1970s. This would have been a bomb when it first went to bottle, so massively structured and immovable in its first 15-20 years. Possibly up until 10 years ago but is now so crunchy and giving so that all is forgiven. About as ideal as a sangiovese can be, resolved, cool and impossibly fresh. Laura feels a connection looking forward to 2015. This remains to be seen. Come back after 10 minutes and the clove can’t be missed. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted February 2024

Luca Martini di Cigala and nephew Federico

Fattoria San Giusto A Rentennano Percarlo 2019, Toscana IGT

The 100 percent sangiovese that lives for itself and yet Luca Martini always feels that the wine shows the truest character of the place. Percarlo holds a higher percentage of grapes grown on Tufo soil (non volcanic sediment left behind by the water that was here three to four million years ago), a soil of sandy quality and pebbles. Results in a salty quality, a mineral quotient, a stream of airy brightness within a very structured and powerful sangiovese. Great saltiness and also fruit, a minty or mirto sensation that creates a cool, salt licked feeling. There is no other wine like this. Amazing freshness incarnate. Drink 2024-2034. Tasted February 2024

Montevertine Le Pergole Torte 2021, Toscana IGT

As expected Le Pergole Torte expresses more volume and aromatic concentration than Montervertine mainly because its source are the oldest vines, namely the 1968 and 1972 original blocks. Twenty to 25 days of maceration with pump-overs, followed by a racking off and then a return to the concrete vats for another few months for malolactic fermentation. A year in barriques (on average 15-20 percent new) and another year in Garbellotto Slavonian cask, maximum 18 hL size. Martino Manetti is reminded of 2007, a vintage that acted closed early with the requiem of a minimum four to five years to be released from its tannic chains. And yet these days Manetti’s wines open sooner – it’s just a fact of change, maturity, growing and mapping out better sangiovese. The floral meets Macigno mineral expressiveness is present from the start yet without the intensity of 2017, nor is 2021 showy with the power of 2018. This 2021 resides right there in the balanced middle wheelhouse and should rightfully begin to give generously of itself starting in 2026. Some sangiovese are just in another league. Drink 2026-2040. Tasted May 2024

Canalicchio Di Sopra Brunello Di Montalcino DOCG Vigna Montosoli 2020

Montosoli the northerly Montalcino mound, the hill of freshness, the knoll where sangiovese gains grip, savour and elegance, where Canalicchio di Sopra’s Vigna designate Brunello from six hectares delivers approximately five into this wine. The precision and fluidity of this ’20 is just about as fine and graceful as the Ripaccioli have ever produced. Literally the juice or blood of Montosoli’s Galestro, a clay-schist flaking at the surface bleeding back down into the earth, acquired by the roots, vacuumed back up into the vines and gifted to the bunches. Sapidity is similar to 2018 and that year was cold(er) which explains how soil is such the driver, especially for Montosoli. This tastes as you might expect, concentrated, texturally full and without pause. Incredible Brunello. Poised, seemingly ready but not, looking ahead two decades, maybe more. With thanks to perfectly restrained cellar work, timing and decision making. In this moment, at least in terms of clarity, 2020 is a Montosoli vintage. Drink 2026-2036. Tasted November 2024

Sesti Brunello Di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Phenomena 2019

There are normal, standard Brunello di Montalcino Riserva, there are proper and representative examples, also exceptional versions and then there are the ones of ephemeral beauty. Fleeting in part because of their natural perfumes, scents that come from the fruiting bodies alone, mostly from the skins and yet like people there are some whose scents you never forget. Such is the case with Phenomena, a silent and measured creature of sangiovese but one that comes back to your thoughts and senses long after you are no longer in contact with the wine. Phenomena is also a Brunello of feeling, which means something ethereal, tactile and conclusive. Not seductive mind you, but suggestive and this 2019 will carry on, for some impossibly calculated infinite amount of time, as close to forever as could justifiably be imagined. Drink 2026-2038. Tasted November 2024

With Giacomo Neri

Casanova Di Neri Brunello Di Montalcino DOCG Cerretalto 2019

The Cerretalto canyon is this singular Brunello’s origin, the place defined by Giacomo Neri as a “plintite,” of quartz, iron and magnesium elements residing next to and bleeding into the four hectare vineyard, which is incidentally a cooler località for Montalcino and very special place. Rare in the world, of an elemental-geological symbiosis found in parts of Australia, Brazil, China and here, in Montalcino. “It’s another planet” insists Giacomo Neri. You will smell blood and flint (a.k.a. gunpowder) because of the mineral personality. This is Brunello di Montalcino from sangiovese something altogether incomparable. A sangiovese wearing the terroir of a Tuscan trough on its sleeve, having spent two and a half years in tonneaux (more or less 20 percent new) and the same amount of time in bottle ahead of its much anticipated release. Yes the aromatics are concerned with trace metals and ingredients of the “canalone” of Torrenieri, but do not sleep on the purity and modernity of red to black fruit, or at least the perception brought forth because of the minerals involved. Sweetness of acidity is classic Casanova di Neri for 2020 but in Cerretalto they are near perfect and the tannins move from those noted out of Tenuta Nuova multiplied by the Giovanni Nero fineness to now enter into the arena of higher love. For the first time this estate’s Brunello di Montalcino should be given an absurd amount of time. Observing it change in the glass over 30 minutes explains much of what is needed to be known. Drink 2028-2043. Tasted November 2024

Contrada Chiesa, Emidio Pepe

Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOCG 2021, Colline Teramane, Torano Nuova

Nothing else noses like this montepulciano and what is also perceived is the extreme youth of such an example. Gifts with shadowy hints and generous ideas but the sensations yet to come are manyfold, if quite possibly infinite. Fruit source just feels tops and selection so much more stringent than just about any in the appellation. Tannins are about as tight as any in all of Abruzzo and the interplay between fruit and structure is both playful but also gripped by an intensity of tension. A few sips gathers the swarthiness of the vintage but time will elasticize and disperse the parts. The potential here is great and if this is not looked upon as a top vintage today there will be times over the next 25 years where that opinion is challenged. Drink 2027-2039. Tasted March 2024

Feudo Montoni Sandwich – Between Fabio Sireci and Melissa Muller

Feudo Montoni Nero d’Avola Vrucara 2020, Sicilia DOC

Increasingly the use of sun-dried stems are added back in after some time, like sweet wood notes that alter Vrucara’s physiology for the best. The number is 20-25 percent in 2020. If there are weak vintages of Feudo Montoni’s Vrucara they are yet to be revealed and this 2020 resides near the top of the island’s nero d’Avola chain. Just walk the vineyard, in fact just hear the history and explanations from Fabio Sireci’s mouth and you will understand. Richness meets structure for balance at the vanishing point as if we sit at the bottom of the hill looking upwards from the vineyard, up to the Baglio and then the sky. The fruit is special from 2020, already showing the first subtle hints of maturity and the tannins are perhaps the sweetest ever designed. When Vrucara hits the five year mark it will entrench itself as one of Sicily’s finest drinking red wines for five more. It’s abilities transcend grape and island to last for five more after that before starting its slow five to ten year declension. Is there better value in top grade nero d’Avola from Sicilia? Drink 2025-2035. Tasted May 2024

Vineyards in Ulmo

Planeta Cabernet Franc Didacus 2020, Sicilia Menfi DOC

Should there be a finer and more appropriate place to plant and raise cabernet franc on the entirety of Sicily that information should immediately be made public. Planeta’s Ulmo vineyard brings the grape to singular light, here 25 years after its introduction and it has become abundantly clear how it resides at the pinnacle and signature for reds out of Menfi. The 2020 is just now settling in and acting perfectly comfortable in its skin, fruit still swelling and always with the potential to burst free at any time. These are near perfect acids, sweet and sumptuous, allowing for movement and at this ideal stage, also development. There are hints at secondary character in the chiaroscuro shadows slow to reveal themselves. Sumac and pomegranate, a lightly browning and caramelizing eggplant before finishing with a wood encouraged dusting, as if by cocoa and clove. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted September 2024

Yalumba The Menzies Cabernet Sauvignon 2017, Coonawarra, South Australia

From vines planted in 1994 and 1996 right there where it matters within Coonawarra’s terra rossa strip. The Menzies, as in the name of the estate where the Hill-Smith family saw the future back in 1992, there on a flat plain, approximately 70 km from the coast. The cooling Bonney upwelling is an influence and the red soil is, well everything. That said 2017 was a wet and cool season by Coonawarra standards and harvest required many passes over a 10-day period in April. Climate being what climate has become translates as a special cabernet sauvignon because the cool factor, for gelid fruit and sweet savour, not to mention more complex notions of herbs, spices and seasoning than you could seemingly fit into one bottle of cabernet sauvignon. Complexity be glory, as they say and the rest will be history. Drink 2024-2034. Tasted October 2024

Good to go!

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Harvest report 2024: Retro Chianti Classico

Dec12

Sangiovese 2024, Chianti Classico

In Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1976 film 1900, an epic tale of class struggle in twentieth century northern Italy is told through the relationship between two childhood friends. One is of a proletariat family, the other born into the bourgeois and through their friendship the movie explores the struggle between socialism and capitalism. Sitting in a pub, Alfredo Berlinghieri (played by Robert de Niro) says to to Ada Fiastri Paulhan (Dominique Sanda), “November is the cruelest month of the year.” This may have been true for farmers struggling to survive in post-war Italy and through the era that saw the collapse of the mezzadria system. A climatic evolution over the last 50 years might just alter the argument to say that November is no longer the most troubling month. Take Chianti Classico as an example. In frost years there is April and the rains of May to June bring downy mildew, both potentially devastating issues that attack vines and reduce yields – very bad for business. Easter time can be cruel and the late Spring Perenospera an umitigated Oomycetes disaster, but when it rains heavily in September and October, an entirely new set of adversarial circumstances can occur. Grape rot becomes a real factor, grapes swell to increase their volume and the harvest can last forever. Welcome to la vendemmia 2024.

Sangiovese fermentation 2024 – Terreno

The age of freezing cold winters is but a memory now for growers in the territory where the Gallo Nero are produced and 2024 saw another stretch of new age warmth. Even if January and February nights drew temperatures dropping near zero, the daytime highs were often pushing into double digits. Milder days in the latter half of February meant you could bask in the sunlight of a Sunday afternoon, on the terrace with a glass of Rosato or in the thermal baths just outside Castelnuovo Berardenga’s southern border. You could count the coldest days with temperatures typical of winter seasons’ past “on the fingers of two hands,” so said Marco Ricasoli Firidolfi. Rainfall was ample and so 2024 would see no repetition in terms of drought, nor would frost become an issue, as was seen in 2017 and 2021. Precipitation was intermittently constant, upwards or more of 70 millilitres fell in January, 180 in February and 120 during March, which meant for saturated forests and vineyards across the whole of the Classico region.

Sangiovese – Lamole

What to expect from 2024 Chianti Classico?

The summer of ’24 was typically hot and dry but all that changed after September 7th because in some parts of the region nearly 400 ml of rain fell over the following seven weeks. Unprecedented amounts of water, well at least if you look back at the previous 30 years. August of 1995 saw rain like that and previous to that there was plenty of precipitation and cool harvest temperatures in 1991 and 1993. Fast forward again to 2024 and the the constant deluge of mid-September through to late October ends up becoming the cruelest stretch. Days on end when tractors are unable to enter the vineyards, harvest crews repeatedly pause on stand by because picking wet grapes is a cardinal sin and prayers are made for two straight days of sunshine to happen anytime and anywhere. From Greve to Castellina, San Donato in Poggio to Castelnuovo Berardenga, Vagliagli to Gaiole, San Casciano to Radda, in Montefioralle, Panzano and Lamole. Bunches are dropped because tight sangiovese clusters encourage the development of mold from within and the waiting game is excruciating for many. Patience is the greatest virtue and yet sugars are developing slowly, like the old days, piano-piano, as they like to say. In the end a classic vintage in the ways of days of old is declared, with phenolic ripeness achieved because of the longest hang-time since 1993, the same year Juventus’ Roberto Baggio scores five goals in seven international matches for Italy. Drinkable sangiovese, elegant, ripe, low alcohol and a good number blessed with sneaky structure. Producers are pleased with the freshness and ethereal beauty. The tank samples are bloody delicious. Pure sangiovese. Retro Chianti Classico.

La Squadra Canadese in Firenze

First and foremost on so many producers minds are the alcohol levels topping out at 13.5 percent. If you see 14.0 abv on a bottle in 2026 or beyond you can bet the actual number is just above that 13.5 Mason-Dixon line and in some cases 13.5 could in actuality be just a shade above 13.0. Lighter wines as a general rule, but age-worthy because of phenolic ripeness, at least in cases where producers waited, waited some more and picked as late as possible. Expect to see straight through the transparent hues of Chianti Classico sangiovese for 2024, to sense, taste and feel the brightest and potentially sweetest acidities, then finally the silkiest if also most elastic tannins. The 2024 acids will be the catalyst for aging these sangiovese. Anyone under the age of 50 will have likely never experienced a Chianti Classico vintage like 2024 and potentially never will again.

La Squadra Canadese – Piazza del Campo, Siena

Just two months ago La Squadra Canadese of seven sommeliers and Godello as their chaperone went all in for a mid-October excursion through the 11 UGAs with estate visits, tastings and round-table discussions in classic Chianti Classico boot-camp fashion. The theme could not help but concentrate on the 2024 harvest because first timing, but also its omnipresence as an all-consuming affair, on the minds and in the daily planning of every producer. The group’s seven members: Christian Perreault Hamel – Harbour60, Toronto, Lauren Hall – Scale Hospitality, Toronto, Ashleigh Forster – DaNico, Toronto, Jessamyn Box – Major Tom, Calgary, Lisa Baran – Savio Volpe, Vancouver, Heather Rankin – Obladee Wine Bar, Halifax and Montréal’s Elyse Lambert M.S. – Ritz-Carlton, Toronto. A tradition initiated by the legend Jeremy Bonia was carried on, to play a game aboard Enzo’s bus with music themes chosen by the leader (Godello) and each sommelier picking songs to be played throughout the course of a travelling day. Please feel free to peruse and listen to La Squadra Canadese Radio:

La Squadra Canadese Radio – First song you remember singing along to

La Squadra Canadese Radio – Pre-2000 Hip-Hop

La Squadra Canadese Radio – Country

La Squadra Canadese Radio – 80s and 90s jams

La Squadra Canadese Radio – Headphones on a beach

La Squadra Canadese Radio – Wedding Songs

La Squadra Canadese Radio – Dancing by Myself

La Squadra Canadese Radio – When you have a Hangover

La Squadra Canadese Radio – Non North American artists

La Squadra Canadese Radio – Favourite movie soundtrack song

La Squadra Canadese Radio – To play at your Celebration of Life

La Squadra Canadese Radio – Pairs with Chianti Classico

La Squadra Canadese – Panzano

There was an extensive Gran Selezione UGA Tasting at Casa Chianti Classico in Radda, 15 estate visits, an aperitivo with President Giovanni Manetti at Enoteca Baldi in Panzano, unforgettable dinners at Panzano’s Antica Macelleria Cecchini, in Siena and also Florence. As always, the planning and support from the Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico’s Carlotta Gori, Silvia Fiorentini, Christine Lechner, Caterina Mori, Laura Cavalleri and Simone Fabbrini. La Squadra came, they conquered and the Gallo Nero left an indelible stamp on their collective emozioni – forever. As for Godello, here are his 125 tasting notes from the trip – expected and as per usual, abided.

Gran Selezione Tasting – Casa Chianti Classico, Radda

Gran Selezione tasting at Casa Chianti Classico

Marchesi Antinori Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Badia A Passignano 2021, San Casciano

If it looks like, smells like and tastes like Badia a Passignano, well then it must be Badia a Passignano. Then again as a 2021 the fullness, generosity and natural phenolic grip meeting sweetness is unparalleled. Yes the underlying verdant savour is always there, always the Badia’s corner of San Donato in Poggio, but honestly the pulchritude of substance feels extant, furthered and extra level for Passignano. For Antinori. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted February and October 2024

Arillo In Terrabianca Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Terrabianca 2019, Radda

All sangiovese and nothing but the sangiovese in one of the first iterations of Gran Selezione under the guidance of new and improved ownership. Brightest of red fruit for a concept and work in progress that seeks to deliver utter transparency for lower (relatively speaking) elevation out of Radda. Firm enough though the tannins are anything but austere. Drink early GS, again, relatively speaking. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2023, February and October 2024

Banfi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Fonte alla Selva 2020, Castellina

Fonte Alla Selva, “fountain in the forest,” though there is less bosco influence in Castellina than say Radda, Gaiole or Panzano. That said the clay and Alberese soils of alluvial origin breathe freshness into a Gran Selezione with 40 hectares of vineyards from which to choose from. The 2020 is a big wine from a warm season though here cool, liquid smoky and glycerin textured sangiovese with the smooth consistency made whole by the “other” non-specifically declared varieties. Though by rule as of next vintage they must be local and make up no more than 10 percent of the whole. Tight, tart and chalky, surprisingly tannic, not sharp mind you but with a noted pointillism in its brush. The vanilla and lavender may be distracting but as far from over the top. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2024

Bindi Sergardi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Mocenni ’89 2019, Vagliagli

Mocenni 89 is a special Gran Selezione, open, ethereal and generous. And it is just now entering its window of beauty with new surprise at every turn. Last tasted October 2024

Tenuta Mocenni presides at one of the higher points in the Vagliagli UGA at 500m with vineyard blocks impounded with great Alberese stones and outcroppings of Galestro. The south facing amphitheater is one of Chianti Classico’s most impressive sites and sights. The latest vintage is not yet released and there is no shock how youthful and tightly wound you will find this 2019 to be. The one that follows will proudly display the UGA on the front label. More than just a few years of time in more than one kind of vessel has equipped this major potion of fruit with ample layers of structure in a Gran Selezione so bloody big, substantial and beautiful. Will most definitely require five to seven years of unwinding. Drink 2025-2034. Tasted October 2023 and February 2024

Borgo Salcetino Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG I Salci 2016, Radda

Wildly perfumed and built upon a foundation of aromatic volume for a 2016 that needed all the time it has been given to come and express itself this way. Still tannic by way of a combination of chalky and austere, a crisp Gran Selezione and one needing food alongside to tame its drying second half. When will it fully resolve and what will the fruit be up to at that time? Remains to be seen but waiting two more two years will not make for the best result, or joy. Drink 2025-2027. Tasted October 2024

Borgo Scopeto Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2017, Vagliagli

Settling in, arriving near to its fruition and frankly this represents the most elegant side of 2017. A surprising vintage considering what was expected and Borgo Scopeto’s is much brighter and fluid than many. Surely a Gran Selezione that needed time, to soften the edges and allow freshness to shine through. This is the time to drink a ’17 that will work for its dinner. Hard to fathom how it came to be but this works at 13.5 percent abv. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2024

Brancaia Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2021, Castellina

Fine, fine Brancaia, luxe and stylish while restrained in any needed way. The epitome of modern Gran Selezione, understated and always giving, with confidence and the understanding of why the appellation was conceived. Crunchy and savoury, still highly tannic and so make sure to concentrate on the beauty of perfume in this early stage of its tenure. Last tasted October 2024

The aromas and perfumes are so much more prevalent and open for 2021 with stoniness and Castellina as the instigator for how this Gran Selezione is want to express itself. Crispy, savoury and the sort to really bite down and sink your teeth into. Tasted April 2024

New label not yet printed that likely indicated this has not been in bottle long and as a 2021 Gran Selezione that must surely be the case. Keep this in mind when you feel just how implosive and locked in the fruit is kept behind the wall of tannic sound. The freight is loaded in the compartments but the train has yet to leave the station – though as a 2021 there will be joy at the end of the line. With stops along the way because the vintage does not demand too much nor will it crash and burn. Brancaia’s 2021 is a ripe and primed GS to live out the decade and then for a few more years in the next. Drink 2026-2032. Tasted February 2024

Cantina Castelvecchi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Madonnino Della Pieve 2017, Radda

Well-aged (and held back two to three years) Gran Selezione from Castelvecchi out of mid-elevation Radda and a sangiovese paying tribute to La Madonna of her church. From the warm and veritably dry 2017 season but there is both flesh and also acidity riding high in this Gran Selezione. A top vintage for this appellative category because the healthiest fruit destined for the top wine did well to create promise. Still a bit austere and this was pressed just a bit heavy so the wine will always show a certain level of verdancy and tightness. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted October 2023 and 2024

Capannelle Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2019, Gaiole

Seriously rich and liquid chalky sangiovese, concentrated as a Gran Selezione level example should be expected to be. Full and layering vintage, ripe in terzetto respect, including tannins and so this says drink sooner rather than later. Not quite yet mind you but the coming winter and a long-simmered stew will benefit well alongside. Drink 2025-2028. Tasted October 2024

Carpineta Fontalpino Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigna Dofana 2019, Vagliagli

A preview of 2019 that will shown at the Chianti Classico Collection in February of 2024 that are now finished wines “but to me they are young,” shrugs Filippo Cresti. The dried balsamic quality of 2018 is here replaced but more freshness and spirit. A richer wine in 2019 as compared to Montaperto with the wood more involved – while the wine this young is trying to figure out its way through adolescence. The clay is fully involved in just how textured and fruity Dofana acts in this inimitably generous vintage. Flesh will come, with time. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted October 2023, February and October 2024

With Dario Cecchini – Panzano

Carpineto Gran Selezione Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Greve

There is nothing about this Gran Selezione that is not Carpineto and so kudos to the Greve estate for unyielding consistency, no matter the time or place. In fact this also represents a look through the mirror of a vintage, never overbearing or overpowering and just a snapshot of cool, herbal and brushy, like taking a long walk though a dry forest, air crisp with fresh air. The 2020 GS has matured some already so drink this while some others work through their issues. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted February 2023 and October 2024

Carus Vini Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Gaudio 2018, San Casciano

Proper austerity and the yet to fully descry intention are what define this style of the Carus San Casciano Gran Selezione. The fruit combines that pitch of red and sway to speak of savour but as of yet never the twain shall yet meet. Two or three more years are needed, to get them together but tension needs to subside before anything meaningful can happen. Drink 2026-2032. Tasted October 2024

Casale dello Sparviero Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Paronza 2019, Castellina

Unique example with aromatics unlike any other but for now they are mostly caused by the stay in wood. Vanilla yes but also what feels like the effects of American oak. Coconut like Rioja mixed with Napa Valley but sangiovese is rendered “different” because, well sangiovese. Needs two years to come fully together and will outlive many, darkening and thickening as it matures. Drink 2026-2032. Tasted October 2024

Castelli Del Grevepesa Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2019, Panzano

The Grevepesa cooperative (out of San Casciano) grabs and works with fruit from Panzano and they have chosen to put the UGA front and centre on their label. This they do with Lamole as well. In both cases the Gran Selezione is written vertically, boxed and smaller in font. Celebrating an adjunctive location is most curious and when you think about it, quite clever. Their 2019 is clearly Panzano in origin with that notable combination of glycerin fruit matched by Galestro-Pietraforte mineral swirls. There is some astringency here – yet more importantly bright red fruit. Needs a year to further settle in. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2023 and 2024

Castello Della Paneretta Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Torre A Destra 2016, San Donato In Poggio

Unbelievable how tannic and unrelenting this persists as a 2016 Gran Selezione. Crisp, crunchy, savoury and spicy, wood still a major factor and fruit continues to be hold back. How long will this take? At last two more years it seems. Drink 2026-2030. Tasted October 2024

Castello Di Ama Gran Selezione Chianti Classico DOCG San Lorenzo 2019, Gaiole

A reminder and to be clear – San Lorenzo comes from the San Lorenzo vineyard and also Montebuoni but not only. The Gran Selezione is both a name of fantasy but also connected to the vineyard that lends this top tier appellative wine its name. The step up in quality and precision from Montebuoni Riserva is really quite obvious though each are wines respective of their appellation and style. A very important vintage because there are times when Gran Selezione must be accessible early with unequivocal structure allowing it to age. This is 2019 from Ama as a personification of its maker. Marco Pallanti as Gran Selezione. Has a nice ring to it don’t you think? Drink 2024-2032. Tasted October 2023 and 2024

Castello Di Bossi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2019

Ultra professional, concentrated and fruit layered example of Gran Selezione, all parts sweet and tanned, from fruit through acid to tannin. A paced and measured 2020, plenty of warmth and wood seasoning, though all is liquid, elastic and fluid. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2024

Castello Di Fonterutoli Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2020, Castellina

Clean, advanced to a finer point and really showing the sweetness of fruit at this stage. Open whenever you are ready yet can also be kept for four-plus years. Last tasted February and October 2024

Castello di Fonterutoli’s 2020 is Gran Selezione like looking in the Castellina mirror because the purity of red, red, red fruit is the crux and at the core of what this wine wants to say. Hyper indicative of the vintage, clear and transparent, never too weighty or adamant and Fonterutoli puts everything in its rightful place. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted February and October 2023

Castello Di Monsanto Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigneto Il Poggio 2019, San Donato In Poggio

The arrival of an Il Poggio is greeted with great anticipation because luxury and fortune have beget tastings of several recent and also older vintages. So imagine what Monsanto’s 2019 will surely bring to the table out of San Donato in Poggio. No ordinary moment, but one likely to get frozen into time. Open heart and mind, dig into deeper understanding and intuitive possibility. Gran Selezione 2019 from the Bianchi family’s hilltop vineyard is sublime. Concentrated, understated, refined, precise and giving. Nurturing if edgy but always gracious and unselfish. A touch reductive, protected and of course stylish. A moment so vivid it causes ache, awe and longing. Too much waxing for a bottle of wine? Actually no but another Il Poggio for the ages. Drink 2026-2039. Tasted October 2023, February and October 2024

Castello Di Querceto Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG La Corte 2020, Greve

La Corte is “the court,” second of two Gran Selezione out of The Dudda Valley by Greve’s Castello di Querceto. The one with more precision and refinement (as compared to Il Picchio) and it is this warm vintage 2020 that really captures the sunshine as manifested in true sangiovese concentration. The complexity comes from liquorice and resinous evergreen oils, a note of graphite, creosote and something unknown, or unnamed. Nevertheless there is a lot happening here and the wine should unwind with great intersect over a ten year period of time. Drink 2025-2031. Tasted October 2023 and 2024

Galestro – Panzano

Castello Di Radda Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Il Corno DOCG 2018, Radda

Juicy Gran Selezione, integrating and resolving, coming into its own with fruit still at fresh peak performance, These are really fine Raddese acids, helpful and supportive, propping up the fruit. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2024

Castello Di Verrazzano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Sassello Vigneto Querciolina 2018, Montefioralle

Not yet released and will have at lest three more months in bottle before that can happen. A strong vintage and normally the release would be the fall but both wood and fruit need to time to find each other. The substance in Sassello 2018 is, well substantial, in fact something more than that. Richness at the height of Verrazzano’s abilities but my goodness this packs a punch while also showing off the modernity and harmony that define this estate today. Bravissimo. Drink 2026-2033. Tasted February and October 2024

Castello Di Volpaia Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Coltassala 2021, Radda

Always a concentrated sangiovese, from high elevation, solar radiated and night cooled vineyards. Still a five percent mixing in of ultra specific mammolo, spice bringer and catalyst to create this unique interaction with sangiovese. A fulsome vintage, fruit and tannins thick as thieves, luxe behaviour guaranteed and time on side for one of the longest runs to be had in Chianti Classico. The palate and mouthfeel are already showing signs of great activity and you could actually drink this now with the correct salty protein alongside. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted October 2024

Castello La Leccia Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Bruciagna 2020, Castellina

Quality sangiovese comes in many ways with this being the kind of fit concentration matched equally by conscious and confident full use of wood. A tight, tart, tannic and intense example showing both its strengths and also constraints. Give this two more to shed some new light. Last tasted October 2024

Here a Castellina Gran Selezione called Bruciagna, pure sangiovese sleek and hot-blooded. A 2020 of agility, speed, and spirit, well designed, fruit at the height of its powers and a sprinter as opposed to a long track runner. Structure is more power than endurance so drink in the near term for the win, place and show. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted October 2023

UGA Tasting – Casa Chianti Classico, Radda

Castello di Vicchiomaggio Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Le Bolle 2021, Greve

Le Bolle, the name of the cluster of houses in a specific locality and therefore in the register inside the “frazione” of Greti within the commune of Greve. A Gran Selezione single vineyard of just sangiovese, initially made in 2006 and first presented as a GS at VinItaly in 2019. More aromatic volume and power than La Prima but also a smooth as silk sensation on the nose and also on the palate. Stylish, certainly more woodiness and perceived sweetness because the tannins are in fact ripe and the mouthfeel classically “scorrevole.” Longer and more persistent from a GS that represents the house style. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted October 2024

Cecchi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Valore Di Famiglia 2018, Castellina

Solid, weighty, tense and taut sangiovese here from Cecchi in the highest level on the appellative pyramid. Wound tight and will take five years to unwind, just as it has already been nearly five to wind up into this intense present character. Might dry out a bit and the seasoning will be peppery strong as the fruit subsides. The next few years will see the best moments for this Gran Selezione. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted February 2023 and October 2024

Cinciano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2019, San Donato In Poggio

Still tightly wound and somewhat reductive with a skin to pulp ratio resinous effect in place. Still much to wait for and to receive from what will surely be a giving and abiding Gran Selezione that acts out a distinguished and defined San Donato in Poggio sangiovese style. Comes from relatively low elevation vineyards at 250m of medium textured soils, Alberese based, stony with some low-lying clay. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted October 2024

Conte Capponi/Villa Calcinaia Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigna Bastignano 2020, Montefioralle

Have waited just eight months and not only has nothing changed but the wine has gone into full slumber. Revisit no less than a year from now. Last tasted October 2024

Campione: A sample but one at the three and a half year mark so let’s take it at face value. One of the baller and brazen Gran Selezione in Conti Capponi’s work, doubled down by a vintage of similar character. Intense minerals and elementals streaking through chalky fruit that mimic and speak to the terroir – an Alberese stone that will not be denied. This is indeed serious and structured. Wait a minimum four years people. Please. Drink 2027-2035. Tasted February 2024

Dievole Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigna Sessina 2019, Vagliagli

A 6.4 hectare vineyard at 450m which qualifies as the highest point of Dievole. A south exposure with Macigno and outcroppings of clay to deliver more power than any other estate sangiovese. The aromatics are expressly consistent with Riserva (and also Casanova) but the musculature is taut and developed. That which Riserva commits to is magnified in this fourth vintage of the Gran Selezione, none more so than the tannins which grab, grip, secure and hold on tight. They compound and reside in the arena of the austere at the finish of this profound wine. Drink 2026-2033. Tasted February and October 2024

Fattoria Della Aiola Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Cancello Rosso 2018, Vagliagli

The red gate is a definitive Vagliagli sangiovese with its tell-take evergreen and pine forest aromatic crush. A warmest vintage means concentration, early picked jammy fruit and highest acidity captured. A proverbial food wine if ever there was because the acid cards accumulate for layers of sweet and sour edginess. Still needs time and in this case the fruit can hang around until the wine integrates to near fruition, if never quiet getting fully there. Drink 2026-2030. Tasted October 2024

La Squadra Canadese – Casa Chianti Classico, Radda

Fattoria Di Corsignano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG L’imperatrice 2019, Vagliagli

High-toned, tannic and mid-season volatile behaviour, showing experience and location, or rather wearing these things on its sleeves. Just a bit of squeezing or pressing to bring out the natural fruit and along with it some verdancy quite savoury in nature though surely within character for Vagliagli. Curious or in other words unique Gran Selezione that after another two years will reveal much more. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted October 2024

Fattoria di Valiano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG “6.38” 2019, Vagliagli

Notably wooded example of Gran Selezione from another warm vintage with years still needed to integrate though fruit freshness is nearing its peak. Tannins are near severe to speak of the season, spicing and intent. The goal here is structure and longevity, two ideals that are surely part of this 6.38’s DNA though by the time it gets to Vagliagli there will and should be tartufi and porcini on the table. Classically styled for a Piccini 1882 CC-GS. Drink 2026-2029. Tasted October 2024

Fattoria Montecchio Chianti Classico DOCG Pasquino 2019, San Donato In Poggio

Gelid and glycerol red fruit, into the San Donato in Poggio blood orange spectrum, naturally sweet and pulpy, a squeeze of omnipresent red citrus and something so very well understood. Fine work, likely showing at best if not quite integrated peak at this stage. Last tasted October 2024

Seductive Gran Selezione here from Montecchio, not atypical for 2019 yet Pasquino takes the style to another level entirely. Blood orange, glycerol, silken texture and just as it has been said, seductive. Chic and classy without pretension or precious personality. Little maintenance required, only a glass, some salumi and fine cheeses, good people with which to share. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted October 2023

Fèlsina Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Rancia 2021, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Inaugural vintage of the Rancia Gran Selezione, for many years the bigger Riserva from the grand southwest facing hill, now ready for top-level prime time in the eyes of Giovanni Poggiali. Took its time to make this grand change and no shock to find the cedar-cypress-evergreen component running ultra high. A hyperbole of who it was, now under the magnifying glass, full, heady and intense. A Gran Selezione of stature, structure and at this stage, immovability. Drink 2026-2033. Tasted October 2024

Fontodi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Terrazze San Leolino 2020, Panzano

How much does the human factor effect a wine like San Leolino? The answer lies in the relationship between the land, weather, vintage and in how the people who work the fields to maximize the gifts made available to them. From 2020 the quotient is high, above 2019 and ready to pass the torch to 2021. At least in these first three vintage the incline is palpable, the progression linear and more importantly vertical. This is great and 2021 will take it further. Allow the wood to settle for two more years. Last tasted February and October 2024

From the vineyards surrounding the 9th century Pieve and you know what they say. “Sangiovese is planted, consequences follow.” A 15th century drawing found in a Florence museum proves that monks cultivated grapes on this property at that time. More perfume than the Classico level Panzano and so there is proof that this terraced land with high level Alberese soils provides aromatics and great structure in the way a Lamole plus Panzano might hypothetically get together for a similar result. Leolino is not a go between but something unique, something other. Special and of an aging potential that may just be more promising than that of Vigna del Sorbo, but let’s wait 10-15 years to see if that will come to be true. Drink 2026-2034. Tasted October 2023

I Fabbri Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2019, Lamole

From the oldest vines, including those planted back in 1965 and aged for two years in large cask, a.k.a. grandi botti. The old vines show what can be done from lowest of yields, highest of concentration and by way of a contract that seeks and attains the necessity of elegance. Everything about Susanna Grassi’s Gran Selezione speaks to the Lamole UGA, in sweetly herbal and savoury perfume, a floral note connected to the botany and grace under the pressure of structure so well defined. Drink 2025-2034. Tasted October 2023, February and October 2024

Il Molino Di Grace Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Il Margone 2021, Panzano

An important selection, in 2021 mainly from the Al Sole vineyard but also some fruit coming out of Francesca. “A great vintage for us,” says Iacopo Morganti. Unfortunately the Easter frosts reduced quantity by 40 percent. No matter because Il Margone’s position is to offer a calm respite away from wines too big for their own good, pivoted towards elegance in a sangiovese so right and so pure. Puts this in the finest Panzano light as a wholesome Margone by Morganti and Il Molino di Grace that will slowly evolve over a near 15 year period with kept freshness and slow development. Last tasted May and October 2024

Campione: Take a little trip forward along a linear and precisely drawn line from Riserva to Gran Selezione and see what will be. Not as aggressive or intense as Riserva but its own kind of powerful and grippy while also more charming. I believe its elegance will begin to show sooner rather than later, say in the first few weeks of 2021. The wood is more noticeable on the nose and the sangiovese needs time – but charm and grace is there. This you can count on. Smaller production of 8,000 bottles. Drink 2026-2038. Tasted October 2023

Il Poggiolino Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Le Balze 2021, San Donato In Poggio

Another perfumed and expressive Le Balze comes with as much if not more pulp and flesh a la mode than those San Donato in Poggio Gran Selezione that have come before. The depeche florals are Spring bloom fresh, the volume set at ideal pitch and you just need to keep putting glass to nose because, well you just can’t get enough. Richness is never compromised but it is belied by the beauty of a tannic caress about as graceful and gracious as there are. This is Il Poggiolino’s finest GS to date and that is saying a lot. “Just like a rainbow.” Drink 2025-2034. Tasted October 2024

Isole E Olena Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2016

“I did not like Gran Selezione, I did not have anything against Gran Selezione but the discussion about UGA (sub-zones) was already underway so why not wait for this next change to the appellation?” The thinking for Paolo de Marchi was more about the wines that did not qualify for the appellation becoming wines that now qualified, the issue being a new rule could not apply to only 30 or so producers. So what is needed for that to happen? “All grapes born here should be able to travel with a passport.” If it is more complicated than that then there is much more to discuss. A Chianti Classico from a long, linear and fortifying vintage delivers equally appropriate and extending tannins, gripping the composition while proposing to become elegant and fine. The seamlessness and never wavering focus keeps on keeping on, in the ways of emotion in motion. Will remain in bottle one year more before being released to the market. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted February 2022

Istine Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigna Casanova Dell’Aia 2021, Radda

From Angela Front’s (relatively) newer Radda planting and one to deliver sangiovese with a vineyard’s determination, not to mention the winemaker’s imprint. Will come across as lighter, brighter and less concentrated to some but they would not be paying attention to nuance, precision, stealth mystery and the many still to be revealed hidden meanings. Vigna Casanova dell’Aia 2021 is a restrained tour de force of a Gran Selezione, knowing full well its full intention is yet to be announced. Drink 2026-2033. Tasted October 2024

La Squadra Canadese – Chianti Classico Headquarters – Sambuca

La Croce Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG La Croce 2020, Castellina

High aromatic swirl and flush of floral fruit to draw us in and come looking for more. Many splendored and substantial quality in that regard. Were we to stay there the wine would continue to please. The palate whoever is sappy and gratuitous with its wood-effected vanilla and berry ice cream soft serve. Softens quickly and then trails away. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted October 2024

La Sala del Torriano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Il Torriano 2020, San Casciano

When San Casciano brings aromatic wealth twofold between red fruit and sweet savour then you know you have really got something special in your glass. High chances it will be Torriano from La Sala. Warmth of vintage, expertly considered and arranged picking schedules, then finally winemaking respect has all fused to come to this. Amplitude meets tranquility and fullness transcribes as pleasure. Lovely spices and spicy piques arrive at the back and length is outstanding. Drink 2025-2031. Tasted October 2024

Lamole di Lamole Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigneto di Campolungo 2019, Lamole

As you would expect the Gran Selezione is a crunchy sangiovese, as only Lamole can deliver with more freshness and verdant character than just about anywhere in the territory. A different green than Gaiole or Radda, an almost humid rainforest breath of air, like running spring water through the canopy that expands the aromatics. Brings out the Lamole perfume more than the Riserva and five times that of the Annata. Also sanguine form the iron-laced Macigno sandstone and its own kind of char, like a seasoned cast iron on low heat. Up until three years ago there was some cabernet but now it is solo sangiovese. First vintage of this wine was 1985 and then transformed as Gran Selezione in 2010. Drink 2025-2031. Tasted October 2024

Le Cinciole Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Aluigi Campo Ai Peri 2020, Panzano

Panzano expression incarnate, red fruit ripe and silken without glycerol gratuity and flirting with untethered gravity. A richness while also barrel work lending a creamy mouthfeel that still needs to soften further, integrate the associated spice and see this become a Gran Selezione of parts develop into the whole. Just some austerity in the structure stands in the way. Drink 2026-2032. Tasted October 2024

Le Fonti Di Panzano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2019, Panzano

As always at this appellative level Le Fonti’s is 100 percent sangioivese and as with Annata but also Riserva the house style chooses fruit over wood and seasoning over toast. The warm vintage finished with late season daytime highs juxtaposed against nighttime lows and this Gran Selezione emerged with glaring clarity, instrumental precision and parts on point. From fruit through structure round fits into round and square into square, nothing awkward, sharp or out of place. An aromatic sangiovese while the palate provides an experience and a half. Selezione ’19 is a prepared one, to withstand oxidation and develop supplementary character so that it may age well into the next decade. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted February and October 2023 and 2024

Livernano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Purosangue 2016, Radda

Yet another aging Gran Selezione wound tight, austere tannins yet to relent and fruit in a remarkably fresh state. The level of concentration will not live to the fullest along with the wine’s longevity and yet wood is not an issue. Used and resulting in good gastronomical seasoning but never obtrusive. So reminds of nebbiolo, if more light, bright and austere like Barbaresco in style. Very old school Radda. Drink 2026-2030. Tasted October 2024

Lornano Gran Selezione Chianti Classico DOCG 2017, Castellina

Always stiff, reductive and vertical in youth which still includes 2017. Cedar and pine mulch, great savour all-around, fine-grained tannins and an aromatic thirst yet to be quenched. On the palate there is some incoming joy and so we see that the belt is loosening and the wine beginning to offer up some pleasure. Some will see too much wood and that opinion is perfectly valid but understand how Lornano’s wines at every level need time, The tannins are in fact fine and everything will make more sense after another year of time. Last tasted October 2024

The last Lornano Gran Selezione tasted was 2012, absence makes the heart grow fonder and five vintages later expectations run high. Their’s are the most austere in youth, especially for Castellina because the bright red fruit of the UGA does not always ring the bells of structural alarm. But Lornano’s position and high Alberese content make them immovable when young and so three extra years is warranted for seeing them open up to the world. As with this 2017 which has indeed done so and yet maturity still seems far away. Great and luxe, juicy and even fresh fruit considering the vintage and so Bravo to the team for coaxing this kind of elegance. Drink 2023-2030. Tasted October 2023

Marchesi Frescobaldi Tenuta Perano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Tenuta Perano Rialzi 2020, Gaiole

In Gran Selezione terms for Chianti Classico Rialzi is about as singular as it gets. Just drive up the road from La Villa in Radda, into Gaiole and through to Perano to know what you are dealing with. Olive trees, cypress, pine, other evergreens, rosemary, sage and brushy greens on your left give away to the single Rialzi Vineyard on your right. All that verdancy translates into these 25 year-old, cordone speronato vines for a very specific balsamico, drawn from the greens, through the experienced vines and into the fruit. The vineyard was called “I Rialzi,” literally “the lifted up,” or now “the steps, or terraces. Lamberto Frescobaldi always insists “the vineyard matters most,” and in this case that is simply true. Aromatic confusion in a way but more so volume, palate tension and also vintage. Incidentally warmer than 2019, lending more volumetric credence and tending towards a bigger iteration of Gran Selezione. Feels more like the Rialzi of expectation and the kind of structure to go on and on. Drink 2026-2033. Tasted October 2024

Nittardi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Nittardi 2020, Castellina

Über Castellina sangiovese, full fruit compliment at Gran Selezione level and already openly generous. Crunchy fruit mixed with equally toothsome tannin make for a good appellative combination. Fine work out of the variable 2020 vintage. Drink 2025-2031. Tasted October 2024

Villa Le Corti Principe Corsini Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Don Tommaso 2020, San Casciano

The original Gran Selezione for Villa Le Corti, that being Don Tommaso, incidentally labeled with its UGA while “Zac” adds the Val di Pesa suffix, as per the commune. Quite the fleshy and substantially concentrated 2020, impressively so, rich, luxe and jam-packed with flavour. A mix of 80 percent sangiovese with merlot (that will not be available in 2023 due to no production because of downy mildew). A bit woody on the palate at this youthful stage but this will pass and Don Tommaso will drink dutifully if also effortlessly through the latter stages of this one and into the first stretches of the next decade. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted October 2023, February and October 2024

Radda in Chianti

Querceto Di Castellina Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Sei 2021, Castellina

Really pretty and voluminous sangiovese from Castellina’s Querceto, as bright and red fruit excitable as they come. Not edgy or twitchy though, but even paced and moving from strength to strength. Length is forever and tannins are present if never too demanding. Sei is a 2021 Gran Selezione that will go on and on, potentially through to the middle of the next decade. Drink 2025-2034. Tasted October 2024

Querciabella Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2019, Greve

The first commercially available vintage was 2017, from the highest reaches out of Querciabella’s vineyard parcels between 450 and 530m aboard the Ruffoli hill. Picked four weeks ahead of same altitude vines in Lamole because of exposure and well, Ruffoli. Treated to a submerged cap, i.e. capello sommerso methodology, a simmer of skins kept wet just as they have been doing forever in Barolo. This means a quality of tannin that comes out by infusion as opposed to extraction and with such an ideal vintage the result is uncompromising. Freshness captured, instinct incarnate, tannic freight compact, though the layers have breezes blowing through. Precise and focused as expected and the finale lingers forever. Drink 2027-2038. Tasted February and October 2024

Rocca Delle Macìe Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Sergio Zingarelli 2019, Castellina

It just feels as though a Famiglia Zingarelli sangiovese will always act, emit and taste this way, that were this wine poured blind we would know the origin and the appellation. That being Gran Selezione and with 2019 the glare and obvious beautiful red mess of Castellina fruit is right there. The tops for substantial fruit as far as this GS is concerned and possessive an aging potential long and great. Should become one of Zingarelli’s finest. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted February 2023 and October 2024

San Fabiano Calcinaia Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Cellole 2019, Castellina

Mainly Sangiovese with some colorino and a few splashes of merlot “that speaks Chiantigiana.” Also a 500m elevation for most of these grapes, the sangiovese planted in the 80s and converted to organic in the 90s. A stony Galestro soil opposite to the sandy clay and calcari, i.e Calcinaia around the borgo and winery. Only Cellole delivers this cool, liquid peppery swarthiness that the Classico does not show and also a combination of verdant but also distinct minerals notes. Tannins are exceptionally taut with at least two to three years remaining before they begin to truly integrate. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted February 2023, February and October 2024

San Felice Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Poggiorosso 2019, Castelnuovo Berardenga

If you could close your eyes and sip Poggiorosso you would almost certainly realize that San Felice was in the glass because this is the result of their sangiovese. Tight, tart, youthful, unresolved and yet to realize its potential. This is a bit of a dumb phase, not fully expressive and seemingly light stage of its tenure. Need to refit and see what comes next. Last tasted October 2024

Almost hard to believe but 2019 seems bigger, broader and in a way wilder than the 2020 Poggiorosso and yet this single vineyard Gran Selezione is a force to reckoned with, no matter the vintage. The vibrancy and especially the acidity is the wild aspect of a sangiovese that acts a bit the rebel, with cause. Quality here is tops in every respect, fruit is ripe on both ends and that acidity is really quite sweet. Splitting hairs compared to 2020 but this is something special. Amazing work from all new 500L tonneaux. Drink 2024-2037. Tasted October 2023 and February 2024

Tenuta Cappellina Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Canto Dieci 2018, Vagliagli

A massive Chianti Classico Gran Selezione in so many respects, vintage being the impetus and catalyst for how this reached 15.5 percent alcohol. In spite of the spike the acids are raging high as well, the high tonality of the sangiovese also spiking with sharp and pointed style. The heat is like white light, or lightning rather and sometimes it’s hard to fathom how a grape from a UGA like Vagliagli can get this way. A hot season with big temperatures in late September but unavoidable is the truth of the matter. Does well to express place and style in the face of this adversity. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2024

Tenuta Casenuove Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2019, Panzano

Serious, experienced, structured and vertical example of Gran Selezione. Maturity of fruit but also layered acids and most impressively developed tannins. This walks with great stature, sure of its meaning and intent. As a Panzano sangiovese it knows exactly what it wants to be. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2024

Tenuta Di Nozzole Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Giovanni Folonari 2019, Greve

Western Greve brushy and herbal style of sangiovese with a dusty and evergreen feel. Aromatically exuberant, open-knit, bright and with just a hint of proper volatility. So bloody sangiovese and concentrated for a point to consider a specific style of Gran Selezione. Another proper vintage with fine work put in to factor for a well made Chianti Classico. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2024

Terra Di Seta Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vendemmia Assai 2018, Vagliagli

Ha taken its time to arrive at what is now a truly drinkable moment, the generous wood styling and aging now integrated, smoothened and in delivery of silky texture. High in glycerol, some wood char still in the background but now more like liquid smoke, neither smouldering nor ignited to any developed flame. Relatively dark fruit, very black cherry, tannic and just ever so slightly oxidative. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted October 2024

Tolaini Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigna Montebello Sette 2020, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Youthful still and showing no signs of growing up, moving forward or coming away released from its wood and tannic shackles. A big Montebello Sette from a vintage that determined this course, with impressive bones, silken red cherry fruit and potential of the highest Castelnuovo Berardenga order. An important wine for Tolaini and the culmination of hard agricultural work put in to play. Drink 2026-2032. Tasted October 2024

La Squadra Canadese with Giovanni Manetti and Christine Lechner – Enoteca Baldi, Panzano

Vallepicciola Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Lapina 2021, Vagliagli

Red stone fruit, aromatically fleshy while also expressed through high tones. Acid-driven vintage, ultra believable as coming from Vagliagli and at a refined concentration level that clearly indicates Gran Selezione. A 2021 to pay attention to, cellar and take in the results five to seven years after vintage. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2024

Vecchie Terre di Montefili Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2019, Panzano

The most amenable and accessible vintage there could be but ’19 is already beginning to show its fruit sliding into dried and dusty territory. Granted it was still relatively early in Serena’s tenure and understanding of the vineyards and even more so the appellation but at five years past vintage this is the Gran Selezione to drink straight away. Still some tannic austerity but otherwise a sangiovese in resolution. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted October 2024

Cecchi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Villa Rosa 2019, Castellina

Single vineyard sangiovese from Casteto at the highest eastern heights of the Western Castellina vineyard. Most freshness and elegance of all the Cecchi sangiovese and from 2019 a wine so ready to drink you will find it hard to keep any bottles in the cellar. Not that structure is an issue because Villa Rosa will mature slowly over a five year run. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted May and October 2024

Viticcio Gran Selezione Chianti Classico DOCG Prunaio 2019, Montefioralle

Prunaio is beginning to resolve, to see a next level of integration and a drinkability not too far away. Fruit is persistently fresh, acids sweet and fattening, structural parts in play though without any austerity or great tannin. There is some mind you, but in good control and working well alongside the pleasurable parts of this Gran Selezione. Fine work here in 2019 from Vitticio. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2024

Valentino Davaz – Poggio al Sole

October 2024 Estate visits

Poggio Al Sole Sangiovese Bianco 2023, Toscana IGT

From relatively older plantings (1997 and 1998), harvested on average two weeks before the sangiovese used for reds. First commercial availability was 2019 but it has been experienced and played around with for 15 years. Quite phenolic, pH influenced, a sapid bianco of tonic and grip. Finishing with a lemon saltiness that ties it all together. Has grown from 1,200 to 17,000 bottles from 2019 to now. The ’22 was just a bit saltier and higher in energy. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted October 2024

Poggio Al Sole Chianti Classico DOCG 2022, San Donato In Poggio

Organic, 90 percent sangiovese with (10) canaiolo, 12 days of maceration, one year in mainly large cask. The canaiolo helps to soften the tannic austerity of sangiovese and “make it more accessible earlier,” explains Valentino Davaz. The “business card” of Poggio al Sole, notable acidity yet cut and texturized by the blending and style. This ’22 is substantial, full and filled in when you consider the mid-palate, just about ready as we speak and should be consumed in its first three years. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted October 2024

Poggio al Sole Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Casasilia 2021, San Donato In Poggio

Casasilia was the name of the estate before it became Poggio al Sole, opposite hill to the estate that owned Poggio al Vento on the other side. A Gran Selezione that transferred from Riserva and has been pure sangiovese since 2007. From plantings between 1992 and 1997, high acidity vintage and dry extract off the proverbial charts. Basically the best looking bunches that can then macerate longer and the result is a mix of fruit and acidity that travel the sides of the palate, up and down, unrelenting and working with the structural components of the wine. Intriguing, woody and inviting. The grandest wine that falls into the sweet spot between elegant and bold, lithe and massive. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted October 2024

Serena Gusmeri – Vecchie Terre di Montefili

Vecchie Terre di Montefili Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Panzano

Just 50 percent of production from a warm vintage with low juice to skin ratio. Aged only in 30 hL casks for approximately 15 months before release. “The bottle you open must be of the place,” explains winemaker and agronomist Serena Gusmeri, “with the purity and freshness of the crunchy sangiovese.” Spicy and musky aromatics, not surprising because of the skins’ effect. Powerful vintage with bones, dry extract (more than 36 g/L!) and a purposeful saltiness. Puckering finish. Last tasted October 2024

Tasted side by each with the 2019 there can be no missing the darker hue, stronger fruit and bolder notes sung by Vecchie Terre di Montefili’s 2020. It’s the vintage and also Panzano that create the unavoidable, each as forceful and imposing as the other. Then agin the trilogy of terroir, weather and place are intrinsic to the sangiovese that arrive each and every season. Big wine, tannins equal to the task and yet evolution will happen faster than 2019. Drink 2025-2028. Tasted February 2024

Vecchie Terre di Montefili Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2020, Panzano

A selection from Vigna del Bosco from Montefioralle and also with some Vigna Vecchia Panzano fruit. In the next vintage the two will each make up their own, one labeled as Montefioralle and the other with the Panzano UGA. Depth and volume in so many ways, of hue, extract, aromas and concentration. Truly floral with Panzano’s Pietraforte ingrained within. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted October 2024

Vecchie Terre di Montefili Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2019, Panzano

Vecchie Terre di Montefili Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2016, Panzano

Serena Gusmeri’s second vintage at Montefili, harvested exactly one week after her daughter was born. In so many ways the perfect Chianti Classico vintage and even more so for Panzano and this corner of the UGA. Understated and far from powerful elements, especially tannins, like the sound from a cornet. That said this ’16 Gran Selezione is so persistently young and fresh. Almost no movement as of yet, still a sanguine and mineral quality set that keeps this sangiovese crunchy and pure. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted October 2024

Vecchie Terre di Montefili Vigna Vecchia 2019, Toscana IGT

Less than half a hectare planted in 1981, Panzano side at Montefili, the last year as an IGT ahead of its inaugural Gran Selezione labelling in 2020. High level of spicy savour, bloody quality and more tannic austerity than what comes from Panzano. This seems opposite to what would be expected but welcome to Chianti Classico where producer and location are everything. Richness meets structure, Alberese and Pietraforte conspiring for a muscular style. Salty conclusion and should age forever. Drink 2025-2034. Tasted October 2024

Vecchie Terre di Montefili Vigna del Bosco 2019, Toscana IGT

From Montefioralle and the highest elevation for Montefili at 540m, now an IGT but will be presented, labeled and introduced as Gran Selezione (DOCG) in the 2021 vintage. There are no neighbours to Vigna del Bosco, only the forest surrounding the vines and 62 different types of wildflowers right there. This is the sanguine part of the 2020 blend with a juiciness, a sweetly savoury note that makes for the freshest style. So crunchy, with currants, corbezzolo and pomegranate in such a red citrus way. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted October 2024

Le Fonti Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Panzano

Always 90 percent sangiovese with up to 10 percent (mix of merlot and cabernet sauvignon), now settled into its languidly structured skin. The spices have braised in to create a dual effect, of seasoning and emulsification. Last tasted October 2024

This is truly a preview of the Le Fonti Chianti Classico 2021 because this is the vintage that will be poured at the Chianti Classico Collection held in Florence on February 15th and 16th. When frost struck the area on April 6th and 7th, 2021 Vicky Schmitt-Vitali said “Le Fonti is positioned quite open to the winds so most vineyards fared OK with the frost. Only one small patch protected by trees and bamboo at the bottom of the valley got freeze-burned. The other side of the valley got hit worse so we have to be grateful. Lucarelli (the small village in Radda just below Panzano) is always very cold and our tractor driver lives there and said that his house was minus six the past few nights. All fruit trees burned but his vines had not been out yet so he was lucky.” The result here is a top notch, clean, fresh and harmonious Annata that also happens to be a sangiovese of higher quantity than many out of the vintage. The acids here are just about perfect and the flavours are as enticing as they are diverse. Without a doubt one of the finest Chianti Classico ever made by Guido and Vicky at this appellative level. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted January and February 2024

Le Fonti Fontissimo 2019, Alta Valle Della Greve IGT

One of only seven wineries with high enough elevation vineyards along this section of the Greve River between the Panzano and Greve villages, but also the only Panzano winery labelling with this “elevated” Alta Valle Della Greve IGT. A smack exciting vintage of acidity and wow does this Fortissimo attack the palate with the best of intentions. You are captured, captivated and ready for the fruit strafe that follows. Varietal obviousness, fortitude and pleasure to be had for seven years more. Easily. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted October 2024

La Squadra Canadese with Victoria and John Matta, Vicchiomaggio

Vicchiomaggio Chianti Classico DOCG Guado Alto 2022, Greve

Short-ish maceration, five to seven days, finishes in large cask. Never barriques for sangiovese. Leaves the austerity of the past well behind, forging the present and the future for easy-accessible, fresh, bright and refreshing Annata. Warm vintage brings high brim and mature fruit for truly early term drinking – but you can hold and see what will come. Tasted October 2024

Campione: Perfectly balanced sample of 2022 sangiovese, Greve and Vicchiomaggio, red fruit captured with as much perfumed ripeness as could be desired while also fulfilling palate needs. This is what should be expected and gifted from a Campione – a window to the drinking window and potential of the wine. No need for wonder or worry – you know you will get the right stuff from Guado Alto ’22. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted February 2024

Vicchiomaggio Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Agostino Petri 2021, Greve

The Petri family were owners of Castello di Vicchiomaggio between 1850 and 1910 and today their name graces the label for sangiovese with a small (more or less 10 percent) of cabernet sauvignon. Mix of small and large wood for the sangiovese with the cabernet staying in barriques. Refines in 50 hL grandi botti for a couple of months. Dictionary entry for what is perceived as Riserva, rich and mouth-filling though from 2021 the acidity really works the room. So much so the length on Petri ’21 is of the finest Vicchiomaggio ilk. More fulsome and also well-rounded vintage with extending structure than those of the bookending vintages from ’20 and ’22. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2024

Vicchiomaggio Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG La Prima 2021, Greve

Bottled in April 2023, now 18 months fully settled, seasoned with a bit of merlot though under the new rules of Gran Selezione this will no longer be the case going forward. Of the two Vicchiomaggio GS this is the one with the earlier integration, higher acidity and less demanding tannin. Nearly drinkable, maybe anther six months away from the open window. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted October 2024

Vicchiomaggio Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Le Bolle 2021, Greve

Lamole di Lamole Chianti Classico DOCG Duelame 2021, Lamole

“Two blades,” a technically sound and silky smooth 100 percent sangiovese Chianti Classico of violet aromatic fruit and glycerol texture unequivocally polished above all else. A blend of the lowest and highest vineyards, wood more about spice than whatever other ideas there might be for its generous use. Might have been a bit spicy and woody a year ago but now settled and balanced. Ultra professional Annata. Last tasted October 2024

Full and substantial which is pretty much what we have come to expect from a Lamole (di Lamole) sangiovese and to a degree much higher than any other from that UGA. Perfumes yes but fruit and texture are the base ingredients to make this wine swell forth. Lots of love and deep space in L de L’s 2021 with a sleek Macigno feel throughout. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted February 2024

Lamole di Lamole Chianti Classico DOCG Maggiolo 2022, Lamole

Warmer vintage and for Lamole yet Maggiolo is expressive of more youthful freshness and also herbaceous character with a note of wood char more than spice. There are 10 percent combined merlot and cabernet sauvignon mixed in, along with their smaller barrel textures and flavours. Thicker, jammier and less glycerin, warm and freshness supplied by its youth. Some green tannin at the finish. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted October 2024

Rankin, Godello and Forster – Lamole

Lamole di Lamole Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Lareale 2020, Lamole

Lareale is the real sangiovese for Lamole di Lamole, a selection of two vineyards in Il Prato, lower at (relative for Lamole) elevation, set between 400 and 500 meters and this level, quality and concentration of fruit handles the wood with ease, accepts the spice and comes away as it seems like it should. A truly positive result, rich, fresh and ideally seasoned. Drink 2025-2028. Tasted October 2024

Lamole di Lamole Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigneto di Campolungo 2019, Lamole

Lamole di Lamole Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigna Grospoli 2019, Lamole

For Lamole di Lamole Gran Selezione means single vineyard. This vineyard section is two hectares of Alberello trellised sangiovese in a modern way on sandy Galestro soil. A block purchased from Fattoria di Lamole by Lamole di Lamole. More traditional feel, a gentle rusticity and a glide of fruit across the palate, but ultimately a truly tannic wine. Grainy and yet the texture really sells the sangiovese. Needs two years easy. Drink 2026-2033. Tasted October 2024

Terreno Método Classico Pas Dosé “Quatro Sorelle” 2016, Greve

Named for the four Ruhne sisters, Anna, Victoria, Kajsa and Sofia for a special classic method sparkling wine spent seven years on the lees. Real acidity captured is also preserved from a program conceived in 2012 with Federico Staderini using pinot noir. This however is sangiovese, as it so rightly should be, perfectly gemstone golden and oxidative, every aspect of the wine done on the premises by hand. The natural sweetness from a pied du cuve exemption comes out with about as pure, floral and precise a result as the team and we could possibly hoped it might be. One of the best sangiovese bubbles in the whole of Chianti Classico. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2024

Terreno Chianti Classico DOCG Tre Vigne 2020, Greve

The three vineyards are Greve next to the winery, across the ridge’s rift at Solano (also in Greve) and then Greve west bank in the UGA of Montefioralle. A mix of three soils, they being Monte Morello, Pietraforte and Alberese. Called “Tre Vigne,” because it comes from the three plots for a layered sangiovese bottled in the fall after two years in cask plus six months in bottle. Quite impressive persistence in terms of both freshness and length. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2024

Terreno Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2019, Greve

A blend, of 85 percent sangiovese, (10) cabernet sauvignon and (5) colorino, the small amount of the latter bringing colour and structure. A mix of vineyards again but here the youngest vines are driven to the Classico while more experience and potential for structure come Riserva’s way. They do what is necessary which tells us to wait another year before knowing this ’19 is ready to go. Drink 2025-2028. Tasted October 2024

Terreno Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Asofia 2019, Greve

Asofia is only from the oldest vines planted in 1980 and 2019 i the first vintage labeled as Gran Selezione. Previous it was a single-vineyard slash cru-designate, 100 percent Chianti Classico. A much more pinpointed and focused wine as compared to the Classico, aromatically charged with Alberese and clay as the soil source abutting the Chianti Mountains. A maturity and concentration of fruit as per the old vines that lend experience and fullness. Picked on the 4th of October and it shows in the phenolic quality, upwards of let’s say 8.5, pushing nine out of 10 on that hypothetic scale. Brush and cooler climate from the surrounding woods lends a savoury element to this wine and in Greve terms there is an almost Lamole at elevation and perfumed aspect of this hyper specific sangiovese. Drink 2023-2028. Tasted February 2023 and October 2024

Terreno Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Sillano 2019, Montefioralle

One of two Gran Selezione and harvested almost a week later on October 10th, referring to the place and little church near the village of Montefioralle. From 500m on calcareous soils (Essentially Alberese), not Formazione di Sillano as might have once been supposed because of the name of the place. No barriques or tonneaux, aged 24 months in 12 and 24 hL oak, finishing at 13.5 percent, much apposite to 2018 that finished at 15 percent. This is purely Montefioralle, exquisitely so, cool and fresh, elegant and if this isn’t an ideal vintage for the UGA then I for one will have no idea what is. Purity of parochial red fruit and a temperate state of being, calm and relaxed. The tension lies hidden in the shadows of this wine, non-explicit and as a result the sangiovese seems non-plussed. The tannins are upright, timely yet taut. All this to say that Sillano will be ready just a bit later than Asofia and will also live just that much longer. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted February and October 2023, and October 2024

Perano

Marchesi Frescobaldi Tenuta Perano Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Gaiole

Clearly driven by its acidity made whole by the elevation, which means high solar radiation and day for night temperature fluctuations. Wood now leaving the building and fruit singing. Great drinking sangiovese with canaiolo providing a sapid edge and cabernet sauvignon the black fruit spice. Aromatics are in top shape. The 2022 Annata will be released on November 21st. Last tasted October 2024

Today Tenuta Perano has a distinct advantage and that is elevation. Ten years ago that would not have been said but 550m is no longer considered a cold altitude and so critics and consumers alike should no longer dismiss this place. At Perano the sangiovese matures on both ripeness fronts and does so at a markedly reduced crop per plant. Results are more than simply a matter and meter of concentration. Lamberto Frescobaldi notes how the Chianti Classico from this part of Gaiole are those of “severity and specificity, and it can be tasted in the wines.” It comes from agriculture and can’t be missed. That is if the winemaking is expressed with humility. The verdancy and freshness by elevation are Gaiole and they foil the substantial elements, namely fruit and tannin. All of this is raised to the highest degree in the Annata 2021. “Especially when the plantings are on cooler sites but you really have to be careful, to push the harvest later.” The conclusions are captured acidity and a lovely expression on the nose. “You may not like sangiovese,” concludes Frescobaldi, “but you will always be intrigued by it.” Drink 2023-2028. Tasted December 2023

Marchesi Frescobaldi Tenuta Perano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2020, Gaiole

Ten months have done little to see any wane of freshness or juicy character though there is the first note of sappy frostiness. Unique Riserva, obviously Perano and as an appellative wine still a work in progress. The 2021 will be released on November 21st. Last tasted October 2024

The 2020 Perano has arrived, showing know what it was once shy to do. Perano is at its juiciest and gifted height, crunchy of fruit still fresh, poised and in control, now into the best the two three years to express its Gaiole character. Tasted February 2024. You can always feel the white soil of Tenuta Perano and nowhere more so than from Annata level Chianti Classico. More than sangiovese with 10 percent merlot and (5) cabernet sauvignon for a silky smooth 2020 that wants to share its impression as early as it can. Cool and sappy, easy to understand and professional as they come. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted February 2023

Marchesi Frescobaldi Tenuta Perano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2020, Gaiole

Villa a Sesta Chianti Classico DOCG Il Palei 2022, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Polished like few other Annata, liquid black forest cake, height of ripeness. Last tasted October 2024

Campione: Strong willed, boned and still in a state of reserve for a 2022 that not only needs to find the bottle but also further in bottle aging to open up any cracks in the structure. Rich and caky, wood a serious factor at this stage with a structural comport that will see a ’22 follow the sun towards a good long life ahead. Drink 2026-2031. Tasted February 2024

Villa a Sesta Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Il Palei 2019, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Acid bomb, classic as Chianti Classico is known to be, acetone in control yet present and stylistically such a persistent Riserva. Last tasted October 2024

Riserva is expressive of some more warmth and also spice as compared to both Annata and Gran Selezione. In this respect it’s truly Riserva, the concept made even more notable due to the aromatic richness in layers of seductive perfume. If the others are crunchy wines with energy and freshness than this is the chewy one, with a different energy and style. More ruffiano, the kind of sangiovese you eat slowly and savour every bit of the sauce. Gonna need a few pieces of bread to get every last drop. 70,000 to 80,000 bottles produced. The 2018 sold like crazy and so this ’19 is out at the same time as the 2019 Annata. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted February 2024

Chiara Leonini – Felsina

Fèlsina Vino Spumante di Qualita Brut Millésimato Método Classico 2018

Sangiovese (60 percent) with (20 each) pinot nero and chardonnay, 48 months on the lees. Labeled Brut but comes away with what only feels like 3-ish g/L of residual sugar. Indelibly stamped and toasty, seemingly autolytic but stoic to stark and serious. Spumante of character and personality, gingered, full of zest and life. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2024

Fèlsina Chianti Classico DOCG 2022, Castelnuovo Berardenga

The thing about a Fèlsina Chianti Classico is you know exactly what you are going to receive. A full, herbal, fruity, cedar and floral sangiovese. The hyperbole of this comes from 2022, warm as they come for vintages that wrap the fruit up in a great flannel blanket. Typical can be brilliant. Last tasted October 2024

Surprisingly forthright and open knit for such a young and impressionable Annata from Fèlsina. Calm and relatively settled so soon after going to bottle. The acidity is both sneaky and essential with tannins so similar in their design and style. A full and complete Berardenga for Castelnuovo in 2022, getable earlier than ever before yet in no rush to mature. As clean and generous as ever from the estate. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted February 2024

Fèlsina Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2021, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Tough frosty start in April at flowering but what remained for the Riserva’s top selection of vines gave ample stuffing towards developing, bottling, waiting and now drinking the quality at this level of appellation. Crisp, herbaceous, stony and with just that fine stamp of Fèlsina that adds up to 55 years of charm. Wild herbs growing between cracks of Galestro and veins in Alberese soils, of clay, sand and stone. Right proper stuff and in fact the 30 percent loss because of frost hit the Annata quantity most. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2024

Fèlsina Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Rancia 2021, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Fèlsina Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Colonia 2019, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Settling calmer still, another six months or so into the first mature days of its tenure. And yet the tannins remain austere, the wine’s communion and reunion still a ways away from happening. Last tasted October 2024

The Colonia vineyard is an important tract for many reasons. It was where Domenico Poggiali tried to clear and prepare but had to abandon back in the late 1960s because it was too difficult. Giovanni Poggiali succeeded in 1993 and then in 2009 this Chianti Classico became Gran Selezione. Colonia meant heliotherapy because this is the place people with diseases came to heal. “Helioteapica” it was, a sunny place at a tme when things were dire, including politically. Today Colonia may be a stone and a half’s throw up from Rancia but aromatically the sangiovese coming from its Alberese soils still result in a wine that is so obviously that of Fèlsinà. A diesel and pine note, charcoal, tar and evergreen resin, all rolled up with great red fruit that’s just so pure and substantial. Rich but no overtly so and luxe if always tempered by acids, wood and tannins exhumed from the depths of the grape’s must. So young, so fay away and so not ready to express its long-term goals. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted October 2023

Cinzia Manca – Complicità

Complicità Chianti Classico DOCG Asolo 2021, Vagliagli

Aged in concrete, only sangiovese, no wood, only freshness and elegance, restrained power, naked to the world. Beautifully aromatic, perfumed, floral and unadulterated. This is what it’s all about, or at least en route, this being only the fifth vintage and in the midst of a winemaker (Cinzia Manca) transforming her vines from Cordone Speronato to Guyot. The future is wide open. Last tasted October 2024

A small and protective amount of reduction which helps in dramatic ways because this Vagliagli Annata comes at the palate in waves. Fruit for the most part with underlying spice but do not sleep on the sneaky structure of this Assolo by upstart Complicità. Complicated in the ways of complexity and variegation, aromatically stunning and then intricately woven with flavours and palate textures. A discovery of the highest order. Terrific work for sangiovese that feels like sangiovese born of a family and their land. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted February 2024

Complicità Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Asolo 2020, Vagliagli

Riserva also as Asoslo, “the one,” referencing the solo varietal philosophy of winemaker Cinzia Manca, aged two years in tonneaux and six months in bottle, made at the facility of her business partner Sandro Bandini di Oliveira. As crunchy and fresh as Riserva could ever be, tonneaux or not and so the clay-limestone stony terroir is in the good hands of a young winemaker’s deft touch. Purity incarnate. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2024

Complicità Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Asolo 2018, Vagliagli

Asolo as well, like the Annata and Riserva. “I’m sorry it’s my fantasy,” smiles Cinzia Manca. Philosophy more like it, again only sangiovese, 30 months in fourth or fith passage tonneaux, followed by one extra year in bottle. An intense vintage with extreme heat in Vagliagli, some dried grapes as a result which were stringently eliminated in the field at harvest. These are the best vines, healthiest and most concentrated berries, chosen after fermentation for Gran Selezione. Vintages change but the middle section of the vineyard ripens the best and consistently produces the finest wine. Silky without gratuity, pure and just about as honest and delicious as it gets. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted October 2024

La Squadra Canadese – Campomaggio

Tenuta Di Campomaggio Chianti Classico DOCG 2022, Radda

Youthful the understatement for a slightly reductive and pure Radda expression, created with berries destined to explain Radda, Raddese acidity and a freshness that can only come from this UGA. Red fruit that is Radda, simply and unequivocally, much in common with nearby Monterinaldi but also the southeastern corner of Panzano. Spice on the second half of this wine, just a mere 13.5 percent alcohol, remarkable considering the vintage but once again – Radda. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2024

Tenuta Di Campomaggio Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2020, Radda

Repeat concrete use, before and then again after the middle aging in barrel. Once again the purity is pulled from above the curve in the Radda road at high elevation vineyards littered with a Macigno, Alberese and Pietraforte mix of soils, all layering for this slow release of sangiovese complexity. Another warm vintage and it shows at Riserva level, especially in mouthfeel, fluid and gelid, cool, salt-licked and ethereal. Bigger wine for Campomaggio but elongated and balanced. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted October 2024

Old-School Chianto Classico?

Tenuta Di Campomaggio Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Santa Teresa 2019, Radda

From a two and a half hectare site, a heart-shaped vineyard from which the best selection is chosen for this first Gran Selezione. Santa Teresa is built from Macigno and Pietraforte, sandy soils both but with calcareous factors within that bolster and structure the sangiovese. Still that omnipresent Raddese acidity and this time the tannins are grainy, fine in that way but grainy nonetheless. Still something held back, not reductive per se but restrained and closed. The five percent whole cluster use has something to do with that. No barriques, just large casks (15, 25 and 50 HL) that are 25-plus years old. Really just released a few days ago so just in bottle a bit more than a few months, a baby now and yet perfectly clean, crisp, pure and beautiful. Amazing when fruit can be so shaped and emulsified without any sense of jam, overt sweetness or thickened texture. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted October 2024

La Squadra Canadese with Sophie Conte – Tregole

Tregole Chianti Classico DOCG 2022, Castellina

A bright vintage following a darker one and high in acid. Still very tight, opening slowly and says Sophie Conte, “in a hay moment.” Dry, suspended in time, reflected in the light. All full berries, spontaneous ferment, simultaneously inoculated malolactic, the DNA of Tregole really coming through with cool-coloured intensity. Bottled January 2024. Last tasted October 2024

The latest from Sophie Conte (also tasted from barrel on December 4th, 2023) is her first crowing moment, at least to date and in terms of her young career in making Chianti Classico Annata. De-stemmed and no pressing, fermentation at 24 degrees (celsius), 10-12 days, saturated with nitrogen, taste every day, separated when the skins release no more. Made with three vineyards’ fruit; Vigna del Bosco, Vigna del Strada and Casa, right by the house. “I’m pretty happy (we hit the point) in 2022,” admits Sophie. Brightness and freshness found, the goal achieved and bitterness kept not only at bay, but fully away. An aromatic swirl of pinpointed Castellina intensity that draws from the winds and the slopes to translate soil as best and purposed as any. You can feel the energy waiting and wanting to be released. No lack for structure from Conte’s 2022, young and yet to evolve into the polished solo sangiovese it is destined to become. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted February 2024

Sophie Conte – Tregole

Tregole Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Castellina

For Sophie Conte this is a dark-hued vintage (as opposed to Panzano whien this happened in 2020) in between two with much more light. Inoculated on both fermentations with some whole berry inclusion. A sweeter tomato note as compared to 2020, running sanguine dark and a saltiness that does not appear in the bookending vintages. A matter of thick skins that only Tregole grows, a savoury-salty finish with vibrant tannin and equally invigorating acidity. Last tasted October 2024

The Classico may be Castellina but the feeling is just as akin to Radda, because this is the border, in the vineyards above the river and a micro climate that brings swirling winds in from Montevarchi and the Apennines beyond. No frost here because of 500-600m of elevation (incredible for Castellina), one of two best harvests because again, cool climate, elevation and Macigno soils are all ideal to create this kind of mineral and glycerin sangiovese. Spent 10-12 days in fermentation at 23-24 degrees, a matter of whole berries (because tannins can be austere at Tregole) and then under hydrogen for 5-10 days and skin maceration 18-28 days, longer with the Riserva and GS. So bloody lovely, walking a tightrope line, at first volatile but the fruit swells and vertically elevates up to the level you wish for in the Annata. In fact there is more structure in Annata then most Chianti Classico. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted December 2023

The Band at Tregole

Tregole Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Castellina

Lighter vintage, certainly for Tregole as compared to 2021 and also more than 2022. Evergreen on the nose, tomato leaf and paste. A charred cherry and toasted element mix that feels specific to these ravines and valleys where sangiovese grows surrounding by heavy woods. A Chianti Classico no doubt influenced by the oxygenation provided by its full forests. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted October 2024

La Squadra Canadese – Tregole

Tregole Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2021, Castellina

When you step up into Riserva 2021 you bring the DNA of Tregole into hyperbole or better said, more intense light. The beautiful rusticity of Annata and its tomato-rosemary savoury quality is not just magnified but also refined. Now the true balsamico of the place comes through but only now after more time in bottle does the purity of the refinement come across with this level of finesse. Spices are green and they are what the surrounding woods breathe into sangiovese with added layers because of the higher quality fruit. Just beginning its trajectory into the finest of days. Last tasted October 2024

Bottled in November of 2023 and slated for imminent release. Floral yet reserved aromas and unequivocally sangiovese. La Riserva ages in (old) tonneaux of 700L and barriques. More brightness and freshness than the lion’s share of this appellative level in Chianti Classico, crisp and crunchy for Riserva but ultimately a matter of a specific vineyard, planted in 1985, as in the lower part beneath the younger vines. The warmest location where Ginestra blooms earlier and the fruit is saucy, a salsa of sangiovese sucoso, the juices running from rare roast beef. But also blood orange and so a pulpy sensation. Drink 2026-2034. Tasted May 2024

Belvedere Campòli Guicciardini Campoli Chianti Classico DOCG 2022, San Casciano

Solo sangiovese from “a normal vintage,” fruit from young vines not yet come into their own, aged for one year in large 25 hL French cask. Grapes are harvested at Belvedere Campòli, delivered to be processed and vinified at Castello di Poppiano and coming soon is a cellar project to the Chianti Classico property. Quite pure and yet savoury with the finest grainy structure laying below the pulpy red fruit. Missing a point of acidity to say that ripeness comes first. A factor of vintage and therefore necessity. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted October 2024

Belvedere Campóli Guicciardini Campoli Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2020, San Casciano

A mix of higher tones and also acidity for a Riserva that seems clear to have been given the best available fruit from the vintage. Fruit grown on stony Pietraforte soil derived from this unique lingua or “tongue” of Formazione di Silano. The savoury elements are consistent with all of Belvedere Campóli’s wines that have been tasted since the purchase of the estate in 2015. You can surely feel the lack of intervention, the respect for allowing the place to speak for itself and the thread of DNA running through all three levels of the wines. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2024

Belvedere Campóli Guicciardini Campoli Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2020, San Casciano

Belvedere Campóli’s ownership is Guicciardini of Castello di Poppiano – Chianti Colli Fiorentini and Massi di Mandorlaia – Maremma – Morello di Scanzano. Francesco Guicciardini was an Italian historian and statesman, a contemporary and critic of Niccolò Machiavelli and considered one of the major political writers of the Italian Renaissance. The Belvedere Campóli estate dates to 1915, was abandoned after the end of the mezzadrie system and purchased by Italian historian and mathematician Niccolò Guicciardini and family in 2015. They have been restoring and replanting vineyards since 2020. From the single vineyard called Tabernocolo, set just below the large forest above and indicative of the chapel on the estate. Identifying the vineyard as the one to define Chianti Classico as Gran Selezione was paramount while the aromas and palate notes remain so perfectly consistent with both the Classico and Riserva. Steps up the concentration, the mineral and elemental aspects drawn from the Pietraforte and the cool, almost minty savour in the flavours. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2024

La Squadra Canadese – Cigliano di Sopra

Cigliano Di Sopra Nuvola Del Cigliano 2022, Toscana IGT

Picked earlier to preserve acidity (5-ish g/L of TA) and says Matteo Vaccari, “we work with the lees for a good resolution. You can make mistakes with sangiovese but not with trebbiano.” Texture is of a terrific natural coarseness while energy improvises, improvise upon and rights the fabric of this white. Last tasted February 2024. A mix of 75 percent trebbiano and (25) malvasia, five days whole bunches for a quick syringe of carbonic and then a short, old wood stay. Comes away with just that quick strike of matchstick and a finish at 11 percent alcohol. Citrus is very lemon, juiced and gelid like curd but what stands out is the dry extract and sweet tannins. This can and will age – there is no doubt. Picked on September 17th, 2023 – a week later than previously – on the 24th. Less than 1,000 bottles made. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted October 2023 and 2024

Giampaolo Chiettini – La Vigna di San Martino Ad Argiano

La Vigna di San Martino Ad Argiano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2022, San Casciano

“For us it’s important to have ripe grapes,” insists Giampaolo Chiettini, “and a balance from the vineyard.” Good thing because, well 25 days of maceration, with soft pump-overs, sometimes just with a bucket, meaning no punchdowns “that would violate the skins.” Infusion, not extraction until dryness and then put to 1000L casks and 500L tonneaux. The ’22 is ultra ripe with sweet acidity and unmistakable structure. All that could be wanted and needed. What a bloody hematic example of sangiovese. Last tasted October 2024

Campione: The tiniest of properties (one hectare) and smallest of productions (2,000 bottles) in San Casciano from Chiettini. A sample but one nose into this 100 percent sangiovese and you know you’ve found something meaningful. A wisdom in the wine born of great terroir and an agronomist’s acumen. The winemaker seems inconsequential or at least respectful to everything else. There is calm demeanour and a presence of freshness, soulful savour and weight without compression. Hard to know what it’s all about, but knowing more will be a next pursuit. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted February 2024

La Vigna di San Martino Ad Argiano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2021, San Casciano

Perhaps not quite as ripe as 2022 but close without any deficiency, also less dark of fruit and very red cherry. Elevated acidity and a year make a difference – you can feel the first sign of maturity but just as grippy and underscored by structure with sweeter tannins than those in the ’22. The most classic sangiovese, lithe and conversely deep, pinning in the only direction it can and should, looking toward a future that will be long. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted October 2024

La Vigna Di San Martino Ad Argiano Chianti Classico DOCG 2017, San Casciano

Just the third vintage of the newly re-planted, one hectare vineyard when only 800 bottles were produced. No doubt what vintage this comes from because fruit is already acting dried into secondary character with frutta di bosco and dried porcini notes having already begun. A bit volatile, not unusual for 2017, a truffled element and while complex there is some trouble. The acidity captured is persistent which acts as the driver for the pleasure in mouthfeel and upon the palate. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted October 2024

La Vigna di San Martino Ad Argiano Vinsanto del Chianti Classico DOCG 2017, San Casciano

A Vinsanto that must be made with ripe grapes, the sort that would arrive at 24 degrees alcohol and then in Giampaolo’s world the drying is longer than most Vinsanto. This ’17 reached 300 g/L of residual suar, at the highest end for the appellation. Has been dried in the Pieve (though not 2017) and 400 bottles were made. So very caramel orange, almost maple syrup in its style of sweetness, crazy good acidity, a wholly deserving and respectful dessert wine made from 50-50 trebbiano and malvasia. Turns nutty toasty, keeps changing and changing again. Drink 2024-2033. Tasted October 2024

Castell’in Villa Chianti Classico DOCG 2019, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Indelibly stamped vintage for Castell’In Villa, richness incarnate, fully formed at the height of heights for Castelnuovo Berardenga Chianti Classico Annata. Then again you know with a year plus one more in bottle the sangiovese will adjust, morph and change into some thing more closely resembling the previous two vintages. The palate weight is further layered but it too will see a release into its next stage. Finally there is the length that indicates the quietest power structure to disassemble and then glide over a 15 years period of time. Last tasted October 2024

Imagine the baseline and then the ceiling for Chianti Classico. Draw from as much experience as you have and then extrapolate towards the greatest of a vintage’s potential. Then put your nose into Castell’In Villa 2019. Everything rises to the surface and presents itself to be noticed. Note the calm, the precision and finesse, reach out and touch the fruit, recognize the quality and fitness of the acidity and realize potential, compounded in understanding after allowing the purity of the sangiovese to rest upon the palate. As near perfect and essential as it gets for Castell’In Villa without boundaries or limitations. Last tasted February 2024

Leave to Castell’in Villa to do not just the right thing but carry the weight of necessity and hold back Annata to a point where it can be tasted and assessed with the respect it so richly deserves. Though this Castelnuovo Berardenga estate and their historic vineyards are equipped to create magic in the most challenging of vintages, well when a season like 2019 is gifted then the magic turns to the supernatural. Fruit is everything, as it must be and the aspects of climate, fermentation, maturation and all the accruements of seasoning add up to a speciality as no other Chianti Classico will create. This is a very special vintage of Castell’in Villa and one to rival any Riserva or Gran Selezione made in this vintage. Will live in infamy. Drink 2025-2038. Tasted February 2023

Castell’in Villa Chianti Classico DOCG 2018, Castelnuovo Berardenga

The 2018 weather conditions at Castell’In Villa’s location in Castelnuovo Berardenga were an anomaly for a vintage where so many parts of the Chianti Classico territory experienced late September heat, which sent wines upwards of 15 percent alcohol. Not out of this micro-climate with an Annata labeled at 13.5 and a good bet would say it’s actually closer to 13. Luminous, bright, dualistically and optimally ripe, void of confiture, ideally aged and ready to please. This is Annata made exactly as it was not only meant, but also expected to be. Drink 2024-2031. Tasted October 2024

Castell’in Villa Chianti Classico DOCG 2017, Castelnuovo Berardenga

If 2018 is singularly light and ethereal, so goes the solo artist trajectory of 2017, if in a most different way. More direct fruit, volume of aroma and surely colour, then finally a bit of salumi cure to indicate the finest if smallest advancement towards maturity. Crunchier in a way, but also with acids that bely the vintage, carry the tune and extend the life of a sku connecting this Annata to Riserva. To that next appellative level Classico Berardenga the Principessa Coralia Pignatelli della Leonessa only wanted to make a maximum number amounting to 7,000 bottles. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted October 2024

Castell’In Villa Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Poggio delle Rose 2010, Castelnuovo Berardenga

The top Riserva from the plot on the south begins slow and with 20 minutes of airtime it begins to open. An incredible sweetness of fruit is released to seduce the senses in every respect. Last tasted October 2024

A nearly two hectare single vineyard or if you like the Castell’In Villa cru and really just a fraction of what is made in the “other” Riserva. Similar aging profile but with more depth and also complexity, here in the 15th vintage (first in 1996) from a vineyard created by the cuttings of the best vines identified around the estate. Getting the the iron mineral in addition to the brush and herbs which make this feel younger and more alive. These tannins are impressively resolute and trenchant, trading blows with your palate but en route to their soft moment in the sun. Extraordinary really, a wine about a place within a place within a place. The proverbial enigma, wrapped, shrouded, etc., etc. Last tasted March 2022

From the hill parcel planted in 1990 to the old selezoine massale clones, from the original property, not the current “Chianti Classico” clones. “And there is a difference,” insists Principessa Coralia. Three or four years in grandi botti and older tonneaux so no, it’s not even close to ready. Yet the fact that you don’t explicitly notice the tonneaux is its magic. A big and complex vintage with variability in temperature and precipitation but at the crucial moments it gave what was needed. There is a special presence about this sangiovese, because of the source but also how alive, bright-eyed and expressive it is. This pulses, vibrates and reverberates with ancient seabed salinity. No loss to finesse but more time will be required, to turn back time and back pages, for the true clarity and calm disposition to settle in. Extraordinary wine of restrained power and exceptional sangiovese. Has always been Riserva and “will never be Gran Selezione.” Drink 2021-2035. Tasted November 2018 and February 2019

Castell’In Villa Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2003, Castelnuovo Berardenga

A library release of 20-plus years that realizes the future as we would have seen it, but are now afraid to admit. A Riserva from a warm vintage with the uncanny ability to steal longevity because the way wines were and continue to be made at Castell’In Villa. Sangiovese of a structure that must respect the diversity of 54 hectares distilled into two or three for a Riserva such as this. The aromas are just a bit muted, whether because of the particular bottle or the kind of tasting day. Either way it is not really known but the wine acts a bit shy. Still there are answers and they tell us the wine has plenty of life left to live. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2024

Federico Pini and Riccardo Bucciolini – Torcobrencoli, Greve

Torcibrencoli Lo Stinto 2023, Toscana IGT

Only sangiovese picked two weeks ahead of the Chianti Classico, not Rosé but a light, refreshing, high acid and crushable example. Lo Stinco from the Tuscan meaning “the faded one,” yet ample, aged only in steel, textural because of the sangiovese skins and ultra phenolic. Kind of like green peaches. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted October 2024

Torcibrencoli Il Matan Orange 2022, Toscana IGT

Campione: More chamomile, less honey perhaps but to be honest the mellifluous quality runs high if also silken, especially for skin macerated trebbiano. Extra phenolic grip at this early stage but again, this will resolve and settle faster than 2021. Proper and you can tell the acumen meets experience of the work and the understanding for how to make a natural, orange and accessible wine. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted October 2024

Torcibrencoli Il Matan Orange 2021, Toscana IGT

First trebbiano vintage was 2016 for this skin contact, one year in acacia barrels orange wine. A most interesting take, phenolic and grippy but also graceful and clearly able to age. Peaches and green fig, iced tea savour and persistent which speaks to the winemaking out of which a pure and consistent maceration resolves. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted October 2024

Torcibrencoli Il Torci 2020, Toscana IGT

The sangiovese that rides along on par with Chianti Classico (Annata), here from 2020 and the following vintage will be skipped. All the lots are kept separate and after 12-18 months they are tasted and destined towards their final blends and labels. Natural fermentations, a “for the market” wine of fresh cherries and glycerol in the mouthfeel. Anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000 bottles are produced, the grapes either sold off or blended into the Maria Giaconda label. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted October 2024

Torcibrencoli Chianti Classico DOCG Maria Giaconda 2020

Still a sample because it won’t released until next year but it is a finished wine. A vintage of quality though not completely there in terms of quantity. Unfortunately the next three years will be even smaller but things will turn around in 2024. Les flesh as compared to 2019 but the linear quality seems highly appropriate and the backbone will serve this wine well. Some austerity in the tannins to resolve but they are part of the trenchant plan. A masala of spice defines the finish. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted October 2024

Torcibrencoli Chianti Classico DOCG Maria Giaconda 2019

Classico has been made from the start and Federico’s grandmother Maria Giaconda has and always will be on the label. Natural fermentation, aging in 1,000L Croatian cask, tonneaux and barriques, finished with an extra year in bottle. The oldest plants bring high level extract and concentration. Terrific balance between that extract and the sweetness of acidity. Light structure but sneaky and lengthy nonetheless. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2024

Torcibrencoli Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Maria Giaconda 2018

Federico Pini is the grandson of Maria Giaconda Bucciolini, today making the wines on her family farm where she sold grapes. He attended agriculture and landscape architecture school in Florence before at 24 deciding to start bottling himself. Now 11 years later he produces 10,000 bottles between six skus. Federico’s father Raimondo Pini sold silk and textiles and so Torcibrencoli is from torchere e brenccioli, “twisting the fibres of silk.” Claudio Buccolini was Pini’s great-grandfather, a famous vernacular historian. The company started in 2012 and the first commercial wines were released in ’13. Five years later comes this 2018 Riserva of high level perfume for Greve, a testament to the quality of the plants and without even taking a sip the pretty quality of the fruit is obvious. Picked at the beginning of October after the heat wave and so 15 percent is perfectly accurate, but this is a truly balanced Riserva. And it is very much a Riserva. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2024

Good to go!

godello

Sangiovese 2024, Chianti Classico

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Canada is crazy about the Black Rooster

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Gallo Nero

Sangiovese sales continue to increase because Canadians know quality, diversity and excellence when they taste it

As seen in Chianti Classico Magazine, September 2021

As the year 2018 came to a close my article “Chianti Classico’s Canadian dream” was published in Chianti Classico Magazine. The sub-text was “embracing the most noble of Italy’s Sangiovese,” a notion near and dear to a Canadian heart, not only that of my own, but one that speaks to tens of thousands of others in this great country. Il sogno Canadese del Chianti Classico abbraccia il più nobile dei Sangiovese Italiani, truth spoken on behalf of a nation with a solid foundation of education and a collective palate that understands greatness, not as fashion or trend but for the purity and honesty of real wine. We are friends, partners and more than many people realize, we are soul mates, or more specifically, wine mates.

The year 2016 was when my current relationship with the Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico, Sangiovese and the Black Rooster began. But the connection goes back much further than that. In 1987 I was a student at the University of Siena. I returned in 1990 and 1995 for month long visits. Since May of 2016 I have visited eleven more times and tasted more than 2,000 different wines. Most recent trips in October and November of this year brought me to 20 more estates to show what’s new and refreshed in the region. This article for the Consorzio’s Magazine appeared in both English and Italian because as my Classico editor and translator Caterina Mori so painfully disclosed, “it would have been easier to transfer Whitman into Italian.” My sincere apologies to Caterina but while I tried to keep this prose as simple as possible, the words flowed as they always do. As it is said, “don’t shoot the messenger.”

Godello and #gallonero ~ #chianticlassico

Canada is still crazy about the Black Rooster after all these years

Il Canada è ancora pazzo del Gallo Nero dopo tutti questi anni

How can the relationship between Canada and Chianti Classico be expressed in terms we can all understand? Shall we say they go together like Finocchiona and Tuscan bread, Bistecca Fiorentina and white beans, Burrata and tomatoes? Canadians adore the stony-mineral, red cherry and earthy-savoury-sapidity of Sangiovese, especially when it comes from vines grown in the calcareous limestone, sandstone and marl soils of the territory delineated in 1716 between the cities of Siena and Florence. Alberese, Macigno, Pietraforte and yes also the Galestro-strewn terroir in Chianti Classico’s eight communes are considered the finest Italian landscapes to please a Sangiovese-loving Canadian palate.

The shared history between Chianti Classico producers and their northerly North American resident easily dates back more than five decades and without interruption. In fact Canadians have continued to purchase, enjoy, appreciate and educate themselves on their favourite Tuscan wines. As the upstairs neighbour to the United States, Canada is home to a most polite and respectful community of 38 million residents, as multiculturally diverse as any nation on earth and while surely not without problems, the country has always found a way to keep calm and carry on. Drinking Chianti Classico has surely helped in that regard.

In the summer of 2020 the partners at WineAlign joined virtual hands with the Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico and the producers to orchestrate a different kind of sensory experience. They created an opportunity for the region’s wines to be delivered directly to the consumer’s doorstep. Three unique Chianti Classico mixed cases, each a masterclass in a box. The project was a huge success. More than 250 cases (each of 12 bottles) were sold which amounted to $108,000 (Canadian dollars) of gross sales. In other words 3,000 bottles of all three appellative levels were consumed or added to collectors’ cellars in Ontario. Or perhaps it may be looked at as potentially 10,000 or more Canadians having had a chance to taste a new bottle of Chianti Classico. The plan hatched showed off marketing and sales at its finest.

Chianti Classico Collection 2020, Stazione Leopolda, Firenze

The WineAlign “Passport” cases were a culmination of years of learning, tasting and hard work. They were the first of their kind for WineAlign and the 18 wines chosen were foremost a decision made collectively after the critics each sat down to taste through dozens of examples. The wines were also an extension of what new facets and nuances about Chianti Classico’s Sangiovese had been learned through several series of continuing education going back over many years.

More than this, Canadians have been following the ebbs, flows, vintages, frosts, stories and Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico developments with watchful eyes and great anticipation over these past eighteen months. As one of two Chianti Classico ambasciatori (along with Vancouver and Decanter Magazine’s Michaela Morris) I have worked diligently to do my part by writing about and delivering Zoom seminars/webinars to hundreds of media, sommeliers and restaurant staff in the province of Ontario and also in Québec. In 2020 and 2021 there have been 15 delivered with hundreds of attendees present online for the presentations. Dozens of Annata, Riserva and Gran Selezione were tasted together, the territory’s eight communes were considered and the multifarious soils, zones, sub-zones (zonazioni e frazioni) were discussed. More recent developments with respect to sub-dividing the region will surely be the topic for the next round of masterclasses and there is great confidence here in Ontario for many of these sessions to involve in-person learning.

The webinars were historic events as part of a partnership between Canadians and Chianti Classico. We’ve all been friends and colleagues for a long time and tasted wines together on numerous occasions. But, in the state of the world in which we have found ourselves today we had to adapt to ensure that Canadians continue to engage, drink and pour these wines. We were so thankful that so many joined and took part in this effort. We are able to do so with thanks to Consorzio Vino del Chianti Classico President Giovanni Manetti, Director Carlotta Gori, the tireless staff at the Consorzio, producers and importing agents in Canada.

Over the past four and a half years I have written about, extrapolated upon, waxed rhapsodic over and flat-out smothered Chianti Classico with hundred’s of thousands of words, reviews and tasting notes. The last time I visited Stazione Leopolda for the Chianti Classico Collection was February of 2020 just weeks ahead of the global pandemic. In my report that followed (Grande, Chianti Classico) there were reviews of 175 Chianti Classico DOCG from the previous three vintages (2018, 2017 and 2016), tasting notes that confirmed the territory’s ability to consistently achieve another level of quality. I also wrote that “all of us have to wait and see when the next visit can be possible, to again take in the hills and landscapes where Italy’s most important grape variety is grown.” That next visit is imminent, in the works, once again possible and I simply can’t wait to re-connect with the producers, the land and to again taste new vintages through the three levels of the DOCG pyramid, from eight communes and 11 UGAs.

Chianti Classico UGA

When the great and progressive news broke back in June it was met here in Canada with excitement and a collective exclamation of bravissimo! The announcement that the Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico was moving ahead with the Chianti Classico UGA project felt like a most significant and profound step forward. The significance was not lost on wine professionals in Canada in hearing that the Assembly of the Chianti Classico Wine Consortium confirmed that the Gallo Nero‘s (Black Rooster) Additional Geographical Units (Ùnita Geografiche Aggiuntive or UGA) plan has been approved by a very large majority. “A project to modify the production regulations of the historic appellation, which includes two important innovations. In order to show the name of the village on the label.” When teaching seminars it seemed like every session yielded this question: “When will Chianti Classico labels begin to show where in the territory is this wine actually from?”

When I asked Consorzio Marketing Communications Manager Silvia Fiorentini when the new regulations would come into effect, Fiorentini had this to say. “We expect to be able to use the UGAs on the label next year, hopefully, but we cannot say yet which will be the first new vintage to carry the UGA names on the bottle. 2020 and 2019 could carry the UGA names if a winery can demonstrate the origin of the wine through the cellar register. The 90 per cent Sangiovese and the prohibition of using international varieties will become compulsory only from the fifth year after the approval of the new production by the qualified authorities (as in the ministry of agriculture). This is meant for the few estates that cannot comply with the new ampelographic base and need to replant vineyards.” And so this information is being passed onto the sommeliers, wine importers and Canadian media. At this stage in October of 2021 it does not seem so far off that the effects of the new UGA rules will begin to show on the shelves of Canadian wine stores.

Godello, Cecchini, Manetti

Further news was cheerfully received regarding Giovanni Manetti, proprietor of Fontodi and his unanimous re-election to continue to lead the Vino Chianti Classico Consortium for another three-year term. Yes these will be filled full of challenges for the Chairman of the oldest wine-producers’ Consortium in Italy but Manetti will have great assistance alongside Vice-Chairmen Colpizzi and Zingarelli.

Visiting Italy has been impossible and while there is great excitement now that travel is once again possible, keeping abreast of what has been happening in Toscana has remained a great priority. In August of 2020 I published Four questions to Chianti Classico in which I posed timely questions to 17 Chianti Classico producers about their appellative wines, how and why they do what they do, plus asked for their reflections on the state of Italy’s battle with Covid-19 and projections for the 2020 harvest. I wanted to know What recent vintage would you say marked the turning point for your winemaking, to bring your wines into a place and style that speaks of your particular vineyards, their location and terroir in Chianti Classico? What or why is the reason? What mistakes have you made and how have you learned from them so that you can make better wines and the wines you need to make from your property? What defines your reasoning in how you produce Riserva and other then aging time, what truly differentiates it from your Annata? How are things going in Chianti Classico, both from the perspective of the vintage and from the pandemic?

Looking at frost damage, Frost burn on sangiovese buds, Baby sangiovese stunned by April frosts, Il Molino di Grace, Panzano (c) Iacopo Morganti

In April of 2021 my article When frost strikes, Chianti Classico responds was published. It was noted how “in 2021 the Sangiovese vines came to life early, following a decent and mostly proper winter though one that ended in haste, turning over to warm March temperatures. And now, even if the potential for disaster has struck, hope and resilience prevails.” In that post 35 producers shared their story about the frost and what it might mean for production and quality in the current vintage. The reality is being played out at exactly this time as Chianti Classico producers conclude the 2021 harvest. A report will be published at godello.ca in the coming weeks.

Quality content is what each and every bottle of Chianti Classico harbours but does not parade and Sangiovese loves a good parade. The makers are a proud people and their noble wines always high in quality, but there is no strutting like a peacock. Producers and bottles are those of action and work ethic, each and every one standing tall for themselves. Canadians know this and there is great confidence when purchasing, no matter the estate and at which level these wines may be perched up on the pyramid. Now more than ever the future has arrived and its name is Chianti Classico, most important red wine from Italy. Soon the labels that grace these slender bottles with the Black Rooster signature image upon the front of the neck (where it needs to be) will begin to offer a deeper understanding of sub-zone, genius loci and acclimazione sottosuolo. This is where Chianti Classico will inject some highly specific Italian extract into the Canadian vein and as always, we will be an accepting, loyal, ready and willing partner. Ci vediamo a presto.

Good to go!

godello

Gallo Nero

Twitter: @mgodello

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