Chardonnay is never too cool for school

Flight #1 at the 2024 School of Cool
(c) i4C

Will fully admit to having seriously considered not using the word “cool” in the title for this latest exposé on i4C, Niagara’s annual International Cool Climate Chardonnay Conference. Then good conscience and reality set in because the original dub for Canada’s most important and successful wine congress will always be too good to dismiss. They coined it, built it and people have most certainly come. To foresee and then to consummate this collective pursuit of excellence inscribes Cool Chardonnay into the lexicon of wine forever. Hard to predict just how many more of these joyous to potentially annual profound (four-day) weekends there will be, but were this the last then hundreds upon hundreds of producers, winemakers, media, influencers and consumers over the years will have walked away happy, better for it and with memories to last a lifetime. The extraordinary 2024 edition of i4C went deeper still, to deliver the coolest quality and finest balance between information, socialization, revelry, society and of course, chardonnay. Cool as ever, gotta be cool, relax and never too cool for school.

Three panels of i4C School of Cool 2024

The School of Cool gets into sessions with wise and wily words from Past Chair Suzanne Janke, a lifer for the cool climate cause, public face of Stratus Vineyards and light of the room. Janke’s input, along with the i4C Board, Concierge Kim Auty and Event Director Trisha Molokach shows a highest level of intuition for what can only be judged as a cracker choice for keynote speaker at the 2024 School of Cool. That would be the affable character, next level intelligence and dry as the desert humour of Austrian-born, London-living Master of Wine Stefan Neumann. Mr. Neumann peeks out from behind his little boy grin to invoke the legend that is Laura Catena, to introduce his intentions as it pertains to cool climate chardonnay. “She slapped me on the brain and said there is no such thing as good warm climate chardonnay.” The wheels are turning, theories circulate and then from his own powers of reasoning Stefan announces, “I really think the world needs to know more about Canada and cool climate chardonnay, because it’s really important.” Not that he is late to the party, but the choir nods silently and knowingly, all smiling wryly. You can hear the collective internal dialogue working. “We like this guy.” Then he speaks to they who are not in the room. “Every cool chardonnay has a cool admirer out there,” he insists, “just as every pot has a lid.” The analogy might have got lost in translation from within the history of some ironic Viennese dialect. Note to self: Send Ernst Molden a note to ask for clarification. In any case Neumann comes from a place of hospitality. “As a guest you need someone who can help you,” he explains. “As a sommelier, if I’m going to explain cool climate chardonnay to a guest I’m not going to start with the Winkler classification.” Truer words never spoken.

School of Cool
(c) i4C

South Africa’s Anthony Hamilton Russell leads the first session where things turn immediately laugh out loud funny, if simply because Hamilton Russell is an Afrikaans lekker of off-the-charts intellect, dry wit and a brand of self-deprecating meets sweet roasting and toasting humour that is by all accounts infectious. “The only constant is change,” he begins with an address that may or may not attempt to tackle climate change. “All the hard rains and frosts are just noise in the background and it’s about how we are going to deal with it.” Anthony wisely chooses to order the chardonnay tasting from north to south. His first notation is to explain “how important it is to precipitate proper dormancy in chardonnay.” Then he poses the question, “what is the worst climate problem?“ He is answered by (Nova Scotia’s) Blomidon Estate winemaker Simon Rafuse. “Depending on when you ask me, the answer will be about what just happened.” For Adamo’s Vanessa McKean “it’s a big catch up in the spring to get ahead of things, remove the (geo-thermal) blankets as late as possible before the weeds get out of hand and also late frosts compounded by the textiles still in surround of the vines.” Westcott’s Casey Kulczyk notes that bud break occurs earlier, growing seasons are warmer and ripening is quicker, while also more uneven. Are you sensing a (lack of) discernible Canadian patterning? Even in winemaking, from west to east Canada is comprised of many different vine-growing countries.

Sparkling Flight led by Peter Rod
(c) i4C

Session two is led by Peter Rod, he of chivalrous and consortable character, a prodigy and mentor for Niagara educator royalty and if the audience thinks Neumann’s humour is dry, they are then treated to Rod’s mix of dead-pan, amusement and bemusement. Fine decision to put Peter at the fore for the Sparkling wine flight because nowhere does that category receive more attention, research and investigation than that at his seat of higher learning. Peter Rod is surrounded by bubbles at Brock University’s CCOVI where fizz is considered on a daily basis. An effervescent panel delves deep into discourse for what Peter dubs as “Bubbles on the Rise.” Then the third set of eight pours, this time returning to still waters, holds title for “Chardonnay Unbound,” a varietal discovery with different faces, from different countries. Stefan Neumann returns and keeps the room engaged. Then Suzanne Janke is back at the podium and tells the audience her outfit blends seamlessly into the drapes, as if no one had noticed. Janke’s words are sing-song, showing the skills of a melodist with a sweeping sense of purpose. All she says focuses on the patrons, panelists and chardonnay, but never the I. Piano-woman, “quick with a joke or to light up your smoke….Oh, la, la-la, di-dee-da. La-la, di-dee-da, da-dum.”

With Katie Dickieson, Emma Garner and Ben Minaker – Andrew Peller Ltd.

In the end these are three memorable panel experiences at the 2024 i4C Cool Chardonnay School of Cool. Three expertly moderated sessions by Anthony Hamilton Russell, Peter Rod and keynote speaker Stefan Neumann MS. Intel of the highest order from 21 Chardonnay winemakers. In 12 years of attending this conference there has never been a better organized, finer seamless set of transitions or more to learn. Bravo to Concierge Kim Auty, Event Director Trisha Molokach, Past Chair Suzanne Janke, the producers and entire team of volunteers. Friday night we tasted Friday Night Flights with the producers at Cherry Lane Farms in Vineland. On Saturday night we returned for Chardonnay in the Vineyard World Tour Tasting and Dinner at The Riverbend Inn, Niagara-on-the-Lake. And there were visits orchestrated by the Wine Marketing Association of Ontario’s Andrea Peters. To Chef Ryan Crawford’s Bar Ruffino with J-L Groux, Dean Stokya and Suzanne Janke of Stratus Vineyards. To Dobbin Estate with Wade Dobbin, Peter Gamble and Ann Sperling. To Flat Rock Cellars with Ed Madronich. To Le Clos Jordanne with Thomas Bachelder, Phillip Brown, Kerri Crawford and tasty treats from Chef Crawford. Finally, an i4C lunch at Westcott Vineyards’ Butlers’ Grant Vineyard with Grant Westcott, Carolyn Hurst, Casey Kulczyk and magnificence from Chef Tim Mackiddie. Alas, here are 83 tasting notes, 63 for chardonnay and 20 others.

Three panel blinds

Blomidon Estate Winery Chardonnay 2021, Nova Scotia

“We have been growing chardonnay since the 1990s,” tells winemaker Simon Rafuse. “We can definitely ripen and picking is weeks ahead of the past, but we have experienced more extreme climate events in the last decade, whether it be frost, flash flooding, polar vortexes, hurricanes and disease pressure.” His ’21 is made in a clean style, whole cluster pressed, on lees for 12 months. Sharp yet rich, intense while full, apropos, meaningful and direct. Top vintage without a shadow of a doubt. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Adamo Estate Chardonnay Musqué 2022, VQA Ontario

From an emerging Ontario region – Hockley Valley. Does not quite feel like 100 percent chardonnay musqué but more like an interplanting or layering with some linear, vertical and incisive Burgundian chardonnay. Less fruit from this bottle replaced by mineral salts yet with no compromise to the flowers by musqué. Producers and consumers of fleshy to buttery chardonnay will find holes but the rest will relish in this outcome all the same. “We farm in an area not great for growing grapes” says winemaker Vanessa McKean. ”We don’t have a large body of water to mitigate extreme temperatures so we cover out our entire 18 acres with geo-textile blankets.” Air flow through the vineyard is essential and being at the top of the hill is helpful. Barrel fermented in neutral wood with the musqué portion delivering more floral notes than most Ontario chardonnay. There is a tinned orchard fruit character that invites more than it distracts and the sharpness of this palate journeying acidity is really quite special. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted twice at i4C, July 2024

The winemakers are alright – Westcott Vineyards

Westcott Vineyards Chardonnay Block 76 2021, VQA Vinemount Ridge

From the home farm of 26 acres and the lowest elevation, teardrop block on shales and gravels, facing east. Earlier ripening, acid retentive and sees 10 months in barriques, followed by six months in puncheon filled with the previous vintages’ clean lees. Like connective tissue that links the past to the present to prepare the chardonnay for a longer future. Texture is mineral, set below tannin, in command of the palate from a chardonnay built to celebrate and also abide by it’s double-barrelled shotgun approach. Fires, attacks and conquers the palate from above and below so that there is no escape. Spirit of ’76 all the way with more vibrancy than ever. Impressive like few others. Will age really well. Made for seafood dishes poached, bathed and sautéed in butter. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Greg Yemen – The Organized Crime

The Organized Crime Winery Inc. Chardonnay Sacred Series Cuvée Krystyna 2020, VQA Beamsville Bench

As implosive and protected as any Niagara chardonnay to speak of a year older example that acts and feels as young as any on recent record. Terrific sweetness of fruit and a testament to a full and in this case also long ripening season. Crisp and biting, orchard fruit crunch and no sign of breaking down. Gambles with nature, shows off precision winemaking and confidence exudes from a chardonnay constantly reopening and one you can do so much with. There are savoury elements that suggest food pairing with be a most fun and rewarding exercise. Last tasted twice at i4C, July 2024

Powerful, reductive and in charge chardonnay, assuming the risk and in delivery of the reward. Platinum gold hue and attitude, serious, grippy and über conscious of its abilities. Top notch with vanilla and cereals that swirl into the full fruit complement of a chardonnay you just bloody want to drink. Consume away, with abandon because it asks this of you. Abide and oblige. Drink 2022-2026. Tasted blind at NWAC2022, June 2022

Kellerei Bozen Chardonnay Riserva Stegher 2020, Alto Adige, Italy

From a vineyard at 650m with picking happening at least a week earlier than just 10 years ago and a dolomitic mountain air that breathes great life into this special sort of cool climate chardonnay. A yellow apple just short of ripe, with acidity sweeter than the drupe itself and a classic northerly sharpness that speaks to place as well as any European chardonnay. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Planeta Chardonnay 2022, Sicilia DOC

Production began in 1995 while the vines are now nearly 45 years of age. In the southwest part of Sicily, in the Ulmo area around the village of Menfi where a corridor of wind, “our favourite friend,” tells Santi Planeta, blowing through between the lake and the sea. Through vines growing between 100 and 450m, breathing cool life, especially in the summer. The 2022 vintage saw plenty of rain though not concentrated at any particular time and so the constant events of moderation were something remarkable considering how often extreme climate events are increasingly more prevalent. The coming vintage of 2023 and 2024 will be affected by them, mostly because there was no rain. This chardonnay is impeccably balanced between fruit and acidity, acidity and texture, texture and tannin. The progression is seamless, the result precise and anyone who does not the recognize the experience and continued work put in may not be paying close attention. That’s fine but know just how special a (relatively) large production, semi-cool climate chardonnay this truly is. Planeta’s year-to-year consistency is truly impressive. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Hamilton Russell Vineyards Chardonnay 2023, WO Hemel En Aarde Valley, South Africa

The spirited intensity is unrelenting and speaks to how the HRV chardonnay tastes more profoundly serious than any other of its ilk. “Young and primary,” insists Anthony Hamilton Russell. “I like the complexity that our chardonnay develops with time in the bottle.” Well said but truth be told the wine already exhibits an electric variegate character and so what’s to come may just blow the mind. Last tasted at i4C, July 2024

Freshness and abundance incarnate for Hemel-en-Aarde Valley chardonnay from the HR team that simply gets this grape from this place. A citrus vintage, less reductive than some whilst bursting with energy. Delight in lemon custard, all the zest, crunchy, mellifluously honeyed and never over-arching above and beyond the target. A scintillant of fruit through variety, to ache with love and to please, simply and unequivocally by design. Peak performance, summarily in the best of ways. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted July 2024

The Foreign Affair Blanc de Blancs 2021, Methode Traditionelle VQA Vinemount Ridge

Light toast, easy goes, no long lees but a good signed lease to hang around for a few years time. True as chardonnay blanc de blanc, apples part terpene and part mashed. Smells like baked and cooled apple pie. Palate spirit yet agin those apples are all over, all consuming and all in. Some wood aging, Brut in style, somewhere between six and 10 g/L of dosage laid over 24 months leased lees aging. The second iteration of this sparkling wine. Last tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

The bottle lists Vinemount Ridge as the fruit source though the website writes Lincoln Lakeshore so lets go with the bottle! Regardless we are looking at 100 percent chardonnay crafted in the dry, intense, citric, high energy style. This shows real energy and a couple of sips nearly take your breath away. The elucidations are green apple, piques of white pepper and the flavour profile slash texture much like sabayon extended by a few shots of limoncello. So much interest here. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted November 2023

Stonebridge Blanc De Blanc Brut Nature 2020, VQA Four Mile Creek

More autolytic than some and even more than that, mellow, malolactified and softening quickly. Botanical flavours and fine bitters, creamy style, easy and ready. From chardonnay first made off of the estate in 2017 and looking forward to seeing what can be learned from the idylls of experience towards trying this first sparkling wine made at Stonebridge. Old puncheons and stainless steel combine for a punchiness that come out of several cuvées to try and abide by site, structure and ultimately consumer appeal. Richness of the site begets texture and in turn that appeal. The flavours persist though this is ready to drink sooner than many. Drink 2024-2025. Tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Kew Vineyards Blanc de Blanc 2017, VQA Beamsville Bench

Golden toast, truly brioche style, equipped with fruit a plenty marked by a note that reminds of good and plenty. Stage presence, persistence and length. A dosage of 5.9 g/L of residual sugar which may be the highest in a flight of eight but still very low for sparkling that is essentially dry. Made by Phillip Dowell with chardonnay that would have been planted on the property back in 1980. As concentrated as it gets for chardonnay sparkling wine but the vintage was acid driven and so the sugar extends the flesh. Last tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

High energy, raging acidity, captivating and intense Blanc de Noirs right here. Eye-opening, olfactory shocking and palate enervating in every which way but loose. Taut, tight and demanding. Party wine. Drink 2020-2023. Tasted October 2020

Leaning Post Traditional Method Sparkling Blanc de Blancs 2018, VQA Beamsville Bench

From Hemeris Vineyard on the Beamsville Bench, primary fermentation for six months in barrel, another six with lees and then the full lees aging of 36 months. An emotive sparkling wine that elicits and solicits emotion. Could this be a unicorn wine in its own special way? Evocative of what it makes you feel and what you would like a bubble to taste like? The long lees aging is clearly appropriate and leads the autolysis to a place of warmth, beauty and comfort. Oxidative and yet searing, a blanc be blancs no doubter that mans serious chardonnay business. Complex and curious, crafty and creative.The acidity here is special and in charge. An ideal mix of 9.2 g/L of total acidity and 3 g/L of residual sugar. “The vineyard was asking to become this kind of wine” explains Ilya Senchuk. “The purpose is a single vineyard expression.” Here’s to hoping the 2019 will add a few more months on lees to take that next step upwards. Last tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Single vineyard block called Hemeris (an old term for garden, or “something like that,” from the Greek). Of chardonnay, location between (Hidden Bench’s) Rosomel Vineyard and Cave Spring, picked late September and sometimes early October, for sparkling. Base wine is barrel fermented and aged in oak for six months. Spent 36 months on lees in bottle, finished at 2 g/L dosage (so essentially bone dry) and is now about to be released. This was the wine Nadia Senchuk pushed her husband for and this is the chardonnay tract that was needed to create it. Listen to the vineyard says Ilya, “because it’s basically growing bubbles.” Rich and exciting in the same breath, essential through autolytic response elicited and the breath stolen, literally taken away, every move made for the connection between I and it. An auspicious debut and were it not for the prophetic mind and ravishing palate of the winemaker’s better half, well then access to supply might not be so limited. Drink 2022-2026. Tasted June 2022

Blue Mountain Vineyard and Cellars Brut Reserve R.D. 2014, VQA Okanagan Valley

Aromatic complexity, a chardonnay and pinot noir (55-45) sear of raging citrus but never lean because there is flesh all over the palate. The lemon segments are ripe and delicious, the red fruit character compliments with added spice, the persistence endless and the winemaking clearly coming from a place of experience and respect to place. Last tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Always pleased to welcome the BR R.D. into a glass and here is an old but a proverbial goody, that being 2014 and consumers must be reminded just how special this research and development is to determine the excellence of Blue Moutnain’s indagative sparkling wine. A blend of chardonnay and pinot noir, the first 10 percent more than the last with some of the most restrained, reserved and demure aromatics in the Okanagan Valley. All ways to say this is lovely, quietly generous and so settled to gift pleasure above all else. A most complex game of citrus and orchard fruit, distillate by nature, expertly seasoned with fine sea salt, white pepper and lemongrass powder. Such a gift nine years after vintage at a ridiculously reasonable price. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted November 2023

Henry Of Pelham Cuvée Catharine Carte Blanche Estate Blanc De Blancs 2017, Traditional Method, VQA Short Hills Bench, Niagara Escarpment

Stoic, reserved, full scenting, flavoured and expressive. Tons of fruit here in what could only be 100 percent chardonnay. From a vineyard planted in the 1990s to Clone 95 chardonnay and a place of incredible consistency, “one of the most I’ve ever worked with,” tells winemaker Lawrence Buhler. Sees 54 months on its lees and while it may be difficult four to five years ahead to know what will happen – this is Ontario’s benchmark sparkling wine that always comes through. Not merely a matter of replication but more like intuition conjoined with persistence. Last tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Consistently crafted as a Blanc de Blancs that sees 60 months on the lees from estate grown chardonnay. From a varietal growing season so ideally destined for sparkling wine because a cool and wet spring plus summer emerged in late August to hot days and cool nights through October. In the middle of that spell is the chardonnay pick for sparkling and as good, complex and riveting as this arch-classic Ontario bubble may have been before – well bring on 2017 for next level complexities. Tasty, piquant and toothsome, of toasty brioche like never before and this swirl of creamy fruits and exotic seasonings. Feels like aged Growers’ Champagne and the fact that it is from Niagara makes it all that much more satisfying. Plenty of crunch, succulence and acid-driven energy from a meticulous bubble. The benchmark for local. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted November 2023

Jacques Viljoen – Boschendal

Boschendal Cap Classique Jean Le Long Prestige Cuvée Blanc De Blancs 2012, WO Elgin

Presented by cellar master Jacques Viljoen for a sparkling wine coming from one of South Africa’s coolest climate area. The first vintage was 2007 and these are vines planted south-facing (i.e. cooler in the southern hemisphere) and facing the sea. A place where grapes can hang long and develop phenolic ripeness even while coming in at a brix number just above 19. Lower dosage now and so the autolytic notes (if not globally classic in their expression) and also excitement are increased. As much toast, autolytic and oxidative notes as any in a blind flight of eight. Pushes the envelope to see what can be done with sparkling wine, malolactic fermentation, wood aging, near dry dosage and lees aging. Not so much the classic brioche or baked bread representation but there are complex notions perceived from that aforementioned style clearly chosen, conceived, attempted and for the greater part, succeeded. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Kyle Loney and Whitney Collins – Advini and Domaine Laroche

Domaine Laroche Chablis Les Vaudevey Premier Cru 2022, Bourgogne AOC, France

The word precise is often used to describe Chablis and many other global chardonnays, sometimes gratuitously but here perfectly applies to the Laroche Vaudeyey. Les VdV ’22 is focused to a virtue with its equality, equanimity and equilibrium from start to finish. A lexical entry to figure out the crux and relationship between cru and village. Tasted a second time, July 2024

The immediate feeling perceived would be of a chardonnay bottled with lees, of a certain level of autolysis though neither by brioche or with respect to the sparkling kind. More like washed cheese rind, preserved lemon and that kind of texture that skin contact whites also deliver. The sort that settles on the tongue like a dissolving salve but here the subtlety suggest lees in the bottle more than light “orange.” In fact this is essential Chablis and does it not just feel like Ontario winemakers (in particular) are trying to emulate such a style by keeping lees in their bottles? Drink 2024-2028. Tasted blind i4C, July 2024

Deux Roches Pouilly-Fuissé Vieilles Vignes Deux Roches 2022, Bourgogne AOC, France

Also a bottled with lees style of chardonnay with a level of richness so rightly and righteously older/traditional schooled, but so bloody clean and expertly made. Express and expert tang, layers of citrus, more grapefruit than many, fine tonics and also sweet bitters. There is some fat here but also acidity and verticality, in other words tension, more so than many of the appellation. Recommended by Export Manager Romain Bourgeois and also Stefan Neumann M.S. to pair with The Little Sparrow, a.k.a. La Vie En Rose, the one and only Édith Piaf. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Bachelder Chardonnay Grimsby Hillside Vineyard Frontier Block 2021, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore

So much to digest, first with knowledge of chardonnay in the hands of one monkified human that shall be named Bachelder and second of so much to take in and absorb from the label on the bottle. Niagara Cru (there are many), Single Vineyard (there are more), Grimsby Hillside Vineyard (current status Grand Cru, in progress) and Frontier Block (one of two within the great new frontier, inclusive of Red Clay Barn). Two-toned, of bites and textural chew, sexy chardonnay, clean and focused. Highest level aromatics at the peak of what is possible out of Ontario, positively spicy, white peppery even. Cleanest lees usage for a chardonnay of clarity and relatively speaking, also substance. Last tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Vintage number three from Grimsby Hillside Vineyard and now more specific by way of a split, with the Frontier Block as the plot within the larger plot, along with that of Red Clay Barn. Drilling down into this historical vineyard that has risen as fast as any New World terroir, just about anywhere these sorts of things are measured. Here named for the final frontier, that being the “last terroir” in Niagara and who knows, maybe it will soon be the first rolling off of everyone’s lips. GHV-FB 2021 is a force, that much is clear from the first look. Or nose, for what matters. Cool and stony style from a wide open space where limestone, shale and gravels conspire to create something new and with absolute potential. It’s already arrived thank you very much and while words like luxe and opulent do not come to the tip, others like succulent and scintillating do. Just something so real and right at your doorstep, vivid beyond chardonnay compare, a stealth fish swimming in clear waters. Truly complex for chardonnay and it must be noted, unlike any other in the world though at the same time feeling like something you’ve known your whole life. Make an exception to delve into this exception because when it comes to chardonnay, this is what we need. Remarkable clarity and distinction, precision extraordinaire and a wine to cast nets far and wide to secure as many bottles that could be found. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted December 2023

Thirty Bench Chardonnay Small Lot Extended Lees Aging 2021, VQA Beamsville Bench

Spent 22 months in barrel, in other words space was not needed for new juice after 10, nor did Emma Garner feel the need to remove this lot and so 22 months it was. For good reason, great measure and bonafide success. You know the extra wood melt is there and integration is so complete. No compromise to fruit from a vintage aboard the Beamsville Bench that gave of itself selflessly to mingle in cahoots with the cohorts of those barrels and nuances at every turn. Acumen begets probability which in turn generates prospect. Conclusions drawn are expressed with silent nods, a twinkle and smile. This will age gracefully for 10 years. Tasted a second time, July 2024

Maximum ripeness, warm vintage no doubt, captured and locked into what feels like a reserve style of chardonnay. Full and fine, fleshy and yet sturdy, chiseled musculature, riveting and attention so locked in. As is ours because we simply can’t turn away. Not an easy vintage tells Emma Garner because there was some rot, botrytis and less than desirable grapes. But there was also plenty of great fruit once the chaff was culled, the wheat came in and in turn a terrific chardonnay was made. The length is outstanding. Tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Stratus Vineyards Chardonnay Amphora 2021, VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake

Several factors are here at play, namely lees but also vessel so that the mineral aspect exhumed and manifested as texture makes us think about place. Spices run amok and that housing continues to occupy the impression that is distinctly Ontario chardonnay. Bottled with lees would be the reason behind the feeling and also the fact that it has been aged in amphora. First edition, fermented and aged in the clay vessels, influenced by Rene Barbier Jr. says winemaker Dean Stoyka. “It really respects the fruit and causes some restraint in the wine,” he explains. “Giving some salinity and richness on the mid palate.” A unique way to make chardonnay indeed. Last tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Along with cabernet franc this chardonnay was also tucked into and raised in amphora, no surprise because these have been two varieties suited up for experimental tests. Very late harvested (November 4th) from the 2021 vintage and specs are not very elevated for this wine. Moderate across the board and yet it is the clay that defines what we nose, taste and feel. Wet clay, a preserve with notable vegetal and savoury elements, banana esters, soft wool and ultimately a new set of varietal parameters imagined. One assumes this is bottled with a similar amount of lees as the R & D Stratus OG chardonnay but the clarity and transparency of the AC suggests something other, or wise. All in all a conundrum frankly, jury still out, much left to figure, pilot, trial, error and decide. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted September 2023

Maenad Wine Company’s Yvonne Irvine

Maenad Wine Co. Chardonnay Skin Contact 2021, VQA St. David’s Bench

Orange chardonnay is a thing and this leads by example. Cloudy, hazy and yet much cleaner than the visuals might suggest. From Yvonne Irvine’s virtual wine project, made at Creekside and sold through the retail license at Marynissen Estates. Breaks down regular conventions like busy beavers taking apart wood and making their dens. To be honest skin contact wines don’t get much more delicious than this, especially from chardonnay, fruit having been “borrowed” from the vineyard owned and farmed at Niagara College. Full malolactic, lees stirring, older French wood for seven months. The richness, roundness and cozy-fuzzy feeling on the palate shows just how well this turned out. Should be so interesting to see how this ages – can’t hep but think it will go through the process with ease. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Stefan Neumann MS

Dobbin Estate Vineyard & Winery Chardonnay 2020, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

As full, rich and riveting a style of Niagara chardonnay as there has ever been. Ripeness at peak, wood in full glory, generously yet judiciously used and the overall effect is something usually reserved for what many will think of as a story written over centuries by Beaune chardonnay. There is delicacy here and if this chardonnay were a book it would be a page turner, which says this vintage in particular should likely appeal to a great and wide audience. Make no mistake though because a wine like this is comfortably affordable to the haves. That it turns out to be a Peter Gamble and Ann Sperling made chardonnay from a top warmth vintage comes as little surprise. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Morgan Juniper – 16 Mile Cellar

16 Mile Vineyard Chardonnay Civility 2018, VQA Beamsville Bench

Just carries and emits the feel of classic chardonnay winemaking, without hesitation or equivocation to result in something so knowably Niagara. The wood is on the weighty side and maturity has begun to see this wine acting its age. “I really think it’s important to honour the process of patience in winemaking,” says winemaker Morgan Juniper. The opportunity is not always available to do that but the ripeness here presented the proposition on a platter. “This wine is like waiting for a child to actualize their full potential,” she adds. “I wanted to push the boundaries to see this actualize at a later date.” As it has and the window is fully open with another year or two of enjoying this light lees-affected, barrel-aged and now of a chardonnay at this all in butterscotch stage. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Not labeled as such but essentially a Reserve wine taken from a single barrel housing all estate fruit. High level of concentration and richness in the face of a vintage considered cool and challenging, but when you take a smallest of small lot wines like this that just does not apply. Everything about this is classic, basket pressed, natural ferment, full natural malolactic, 22 months maximum for oak aging, Burgundian obviously and medium of toast. “We come to barrel turbid – we like density,” notes Peter Gamble. (Peter) and Ann Sperling really liked this one particular barrel and decided to put it to magnums only. From late September and early October picks, finished at 14.5 percent alcohol and ultimately mouthfeel that rivals some pretty warm wine growing regions. A chardonnay that moves beyond Bourgogne to offer up its very own definition of Niagara’s Twenty Mile Bench. Last tasted July 2024

Friday, Saturday and Media room tastings

Trius Chardonnay Showcase Wild Ferment 2021, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore

A matter of factor decided by two essential aspects, the first being this chardonnay’s wild ferment and the second surely vintage. Turbidity endured and yeasty ebullition understood are how Wild Ferment ’21 co-opt and conjoin for aromas dedicated and unique to the Trius distinction. Scents of tropical fruit bathing in opaque waters cleansed by energy and movement to result in seriously complex chardonnay. Some spice tipping the tongue and tripping the palate fantastic for machinations of dreams and fantasy. Curious 2021, wild and woolly of texture with the confusion in delivery of a great part of the fun. The back label reminds that the fruit source continues to be Watching Tree Vineyard. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted July 2024

Rosehall Run Chardonnay JCR Rosehall Vineyard 2021, VQA Prince Edward County

More of a restrained, stoic and while not reductive as chardonnay per se there is a wall erected between aromatics and early joy. A JCR dictated by its extract and structure, a compound butter in hard shell, surely not one in delivery of early returns. The crispiest, crunchiest, saltiest and most savoury of all the Dan Sullivan draws from the oh so important PEC Rosehall Vineyard. Try not to blink for many chardonnay that change straight away but with Rosehall that is far from the case. Twenty minutes in a glass and plus ça change, as they say. Immovably youthful chardonnay, stark and as a contrast, so sown, sworn, authoritative and stone cold of its own accord. There are 2021s from Ontario what will last comfortably in states of fickle freshness for 15-plus years. This could very well be one of them. Drink 2025-2031. Tasted July 2024

Domaine Queylus Chardonnay Tradition 2022, VQA Niagara Peninsula

Warm and inviting, textural like silk, some glycerol and running soothingly smooth from start to finish shows a different look and separates itself from other vintages. Kelly Mason’s ability to change it up while still maintaining an always high level is a chardonnay testament to a team that ranks with the hardest working makers in Niagara Peninsula show business. There are clean yeasty notes, like sourdough in the proofing stage and subtle baking spice with texture truly divining the directive for high quality “classico” Niagara chardonnay. Never gives up or in, never too hot or cold, a great vintage in Mason’s estimation, but then again, “anything was better than ’21.” Drink 2024-2027. Tasted July 2024

Taylor Emerson and Jonathan McLean – Black Bank Hill

Black Bank Hill Chardonnay Runway 2023, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore

Gotta be the first chardonnay out of the gates from the 2023 vintage and if this cracker example is any indication of what’s coming then hold on to your senses. Recently bottled and even with an early (September) pick this saw less than 10 months of aging, but the mix of indelible lees and high voltage (8.5 g/L) total acidity put this in scintillant, dare it be said Blanc de Blancs styled territory. So very different to the Runway White (blend) because of its intensity but also warmth at 13.8 alcohol, not quite torridity, but a white peppery scorch nonetheless. Wild and exciting shift from vintner Taylor Emerson and winemaker Jonathan McLean. Will be hard to wait and anticipate what the next level chardonnay turns out to be. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Alex Baines – Hidden Bench

Hidden Bench Chardonnay Unfiltered 2022, VQA Beamsville Bench

Say 10 months in French barrel, a warm vintage to coax out full concentration though “bunch weight and tonnage were actually lower than 2021,” tells winemaker Alex Baines. “More on the average” and yet this Estate level is all that 2022 could be and more, of fruit so silkily rendered, starred gastronomy plated and proffered as if by sous vide and reverse seared white meat, asparagus, salsify and yucca for one of HB’s most sweetly vegetal and succulently situated chardonnays. Gentle spice, firm grasp of the Beamsville Bench, extract accumulated at the peak of the proverbial chart and elastic tannin. All fine, refined and stylish. Last tasted blind at i4C, July 2024

Full and wholly substantial chardonnay wth fruit juiciness, acidity and intensity. Never relents, takes a break or falls away. Keeps a straight line and follows the progression to a vanishing point. The perspective here is focused and linear. Top “Villages” example. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted blind at NWACs24, June 2024

Dancing Swallows Chardonnay “Composite Number” Unfiltered 2019, VQA Ontario

Maturing, acetic and yet quite complex aromatics offer more than curious intrigue. Über cool climate, variegate ripenesses in the fruit and the acetone incites the proverbial shower curtain comment. All that said there is promise and even pleasure to be had. Tasted July 2024

Hidden Bench Estate Winery Chardonnay Felseck Vineyard 2021, VQA Beamsville Bench

My goodness this is special chardonnay, coming as no surprise and if your thoughts and emotions for 2021 Niagara chardonnay need buoying than begin the bob right here. Precise aromas, immediate and echoing, more fruit than frankly necessity should expect as the mother of invention because mineral and saltness demand our utmost attention. Yet the fruit stands firm and even pulpy in the face of the crushed stone infiltrate from a vineyard stop on the grandest of Niagara cru tours. Exemplary to speak on behalf of a vintage that separates wheat from chaff, pinpointed location from just anywhere and adults from the gambling trials of youth. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted July 2024

Kelly Mason and Brooke Husband – Domaine Queylus

Domaine Queylus Chardonnay Réserve du Domaine 2022, VQA Niagara Peninsula

Kelly Mason has hit the proverbial nail on the chardonnay head with her focused and balanced work with 2022 fruit to create what will forever exists as a quintessential Réserve du Domaine. The sort that will linger for years and be compared with when subsequent vintages are produced over the next 10-15 years. Remember the 2022 they will say. Ideal posit tug and a correct split between ripe fruit and stony goodness, also considered as mineral wealth to equip the wine with structure and subsequently longevity. All this despite a slight miss on acidity, which really turns out to be a thing of vintage. Brava team Mason. Sometimes there are misses when we taste blind. Tasted July 2024

Oak all over, toasty notes in the orchard fruit aromas, mid-palate texture and no glissade but instead a settling on the palate. A bit heavy though just a year’s time will integrate the cloud. Lacks the right kind of acidity to really make it sing. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted blind at #NWACS24, June 2024

With Alphonse Potel – Domaine de Bellene

Maison Roche De Bellene Vieilles Vignes Bourgogne Chardonnay 2022, AC Bourgogne

A vieilles vignes at Bourgogne AOC level that proves the ’22 point just how universal these wines should be admired and can be your friend. Bellene’s is luxe, focused and balanced. Last tasted at i4C, July 2024

Sharp chardonnay from Nicolas Potel’s Maison Roche de Bellene out of 2022, lightly reductive, tightly wound and beaming with energetic light. Got a buzz and a vitality about it, with old vines concentration keeping pace and developing texture as we speak. This has been a good sku in the past but Potel has hit the proverbial varietal nail on the head this time around. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted July 2024

Nadia and Ilya Senchuk – Leaning Post

Leaning Post The Fifty Chardonnay 2022, VQA Niagara Peninsula

What was once a true matter of 50-50 barrel to steel raising has morphed and is now another matter. A concrete matter for today’s 50, full of fruit and fuller after its cementing, a posit tug still, even though wood and steel no longer play the push-pull game. More about fruit versus lees, tension so tight the rope never seems to budge, but it sways and slings within inches of itself. A bloody poignant vintage in spite of warmth, contiguous from its wild ferment and winemaking truth. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Matthias Messner – Kellerei Bolzen

Kellerei Bozen Chardonnay Bolzano 2022, Südtirol Alto Adige DOC

Really hot year tells Matthias Messner for a steel only raised chardonnay on lees from vines at 550-600m of elevation. Close to the south of Balzano, “a windy area” with cooling temperatures at nigt. Straight as a marksman’s arrow, cracker sharp and the sort of chardonnay to pierce your heart. Quenching, satisfying and Südtirol perfumed. So drinkable. Last tasted at i4C, July 2024

Has been three vintages since getting back to tasting this archetypal Südtirol-Alto Adige chardonnay from top quality and quantity cooperative producer Bolzano. Can’t go wrong with the style or the effect, of no oaks given and the most lemony sunshine one could arrive hoping to find. This is a terrific vintage for a chardonnay we could all afford to drink a boatload of. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted July 2024

Boschendal Chardonnay Appellation Series 2021, WO Elgin

“It’s easy to make quality chardonnay,” says cellar master Jacques Viljoen, “but hard to make sellable quality. Also scaleable but Boschendal seems to have accomplished all three with their high level tiered Appellation Series Chardonnay. What could be called a 2021 of dramatic restraint, of tension but never nervous, of grip but no abuse of power. Brilliant chardonnay and Ontario consumers should be happy to know it will become available in the upcoming VINTAGES September Classics. Drink 2025-2028. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Lydia Tomek – Ravine Vineyard

Ravine Vineyard Chardonnay 2021, VQA Niagara-on-the Lake

All Niagara-on-the-Lake fruit, from three vineyards and with just a wee bit of musqué inclusion to give Ravine’s chardonnay that gentle spirit and floral lift. Just that subtle hint of jasmine flower, oxalic acid lemony scent of purslane and faint anise of chervil. Spends 18 months in a majority of old wood which does develop texture to find this somewhere comfortably between pillowy and elastic tension. You may not always have you’re best stuff but you can still contribute admirably to the team. Though 2021 is not the recent vintage to set Niagara chardonnay up for its greatest balance, “you take everything you’re given and make the best of it,” reassures winemaker Lydia Tomek. Which she clearly does to deliver a chardonnay to keep the dream alive and the streak unbroken. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Thirty Bench Small Lot Chardonnay 2021, VQA Beamsville Bench

True to Bench chardonnay sprit and energy, standing upright, demanding to be noticed and in turn we are paying attention. A harvest of demand forces the team to focus and pay extra attention, to do everything possible for greater returns. Picking and sorting strategies finds the best available fruit to create something cool, gelid, succulent and shockingly Chablis like. Should age longer than first anticipated. Last tasted at i4C, July 2024

Small Lot just has to be the ownver of the lowest of low alcohol number as it pertains to the Beamsville Bench and at 12.6 percent the conversion rate falls under the categorical auspices of magic. This is not a light chardonnay but it is a lithe, elastic and effusive one. Aromatically demure yet soft and almost caressing, without peppery (and sharp apple) bites or jolting in any way. The palate runs a similar course, gracing with soft and round flavours that are easy and stretched. Lovely and amenable 2021 here from Emma Garner and one to savour slowly, in a calm and tranquil setting. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted July 2023

Katie Dickieson – Peller Estates

Peller Estates Private Reserve Chardonnay 2022, VQA Niagara Peninsula

A factor of chardonnay and also musqué interplanting, unique for Niagara and smartly put to a 50-50 ferment between steel and oak. What follows is 12 months in barrel and mostly no malolactic fermentation though says Katie Dickieson, “some might happen.” Clear, clean, precise, pristine and from an ideal vintage to make this style of direct, ready to rock chardonnay. Beautiful. Drink 2024-2025. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Westcott Chardonnay Estate 2022, VQA Niagara Escarpment

Wild ferment and malolactic happenstance, “and if it occurs simultaneously,” says winemaker Casey Kulczyk, “it’s fine, I want this.” Barrel fermented, super turbid going in and also desired. Welcome to 2022, a vintage for which its maker forgets and leaves everything behind because adversity and challenges always puts one on their toes. Cold snap in winter, vine damage and a 60-plus percent loss of buds (on chardonnay). Great quality nonetheless, a new or different estate mix to result in a more linear, tight, bright and for Westcott, extreme iteration. Yet this arrives brilliantly, very young, not itinerantly fruity, but sharp and hyper real. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Tawse Chardonnay Quarry Road Vineyard 2021, VQA Vinemount Ridge

No shock or surprise that Quarry Road ’21 is a mineral bomb, coming away on that rocky side of the 50-50 fruit to stone compendium. Forget everything you’ve heard or read about this arch-cool Vinemount Ridge chardonnay, but also ignore all the noise about unmitigated disaster by vintage. Niagara winemakers should always make quality cool chardonnay these days and Tawse holds more water and responsibility than most. Jessica Otting is ten times equal to the task with a Quarry so precise and focused it may just make a tooth or two feel the mineral pain. A chardonnay chillingly representative of its vineyard yet, rewriting the jazz because of the shall not be named vintage. The naysayers can run away and hide in their holes because history will be kind to these wines, especially when they shine on in tastings ten years forward. No crutch or apology, sorry not sorry. Remember 2011 and 2013. Now forget them and only speak of 2021. Just great chardonnay. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Cave Spring Estate Blanc De Blancs, VQA Beamsville Bench

Classic, sharp, intense and ideal. A ripper, “and I love that” says Stephen Gash. Dry as the desert in such a plainfully proverbial way. Scintillant extraordinaire. Last tasted at i4C, July 2024

For the first time in quite some time the next look at the Cave Spring Estate Blanc De Blancs is bang on one year later and so yes, freshness is the thing. Crisp and crunchy, stylistically so consistent and really set up to act as the dictionary entry for chardonnay as sparkling wine out of Niagara. It’s just so spot on, high in energy and exacting for style, place and estate. Tasted November 2023

Domaine Des Deux Roches Saint Veran Vieilles Vignes 2022, Bourgogne AC

From the estate’s flagship old vines holdings in the village of Saint-Véran on the slopes set below the famous two rock faces (Deux Roches). They happen to be the largest holder of hectarage and as such this is one of six cuvées in the Véran. As crunchy as any in the Bourgogne Mâconnais, or will ever be, with crisp bites and never dissipating tension. Sharp, representative of great value with several Premier Cru coming to mind and a vintage quality to solidify and formalize the overall trenchant intention, consolidation and voice. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Violette Bachelder and Mary Delaney – Bachelder Vineyards

Bachelder Wismer Wingfield Chardonnay 2021, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

By this time Wismer-Wingfield is the standard Bachelder chardonnay, the one of great acumen and knowledge accrued, the most middle of the road of the Toussaint releases. This is said with greatest of compliment because there is no substitute for experience and Thomas has long since figured out how to make this most high level and consistent chardonnay. No lack for all this and more from 2021, of a wine where fruit and wood share equal space but both exist on the same footing. As always the presence of waxy, aerosol and resinous notes that chardonnay for Wismer-Wingfiled always displays. There is something to be said for the same old. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted December 2023 and at i4C July 2024

Leaning Post Chardonnay Senchuk Vineyard 2021, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore

“I fought the grapes…and the grapes almost won,” quips Ilya Senchuk. We should note that the the temps are/were five to six degrees cooler in Grimsby/Senchuk Vineyard and so he and Nadia feel quite strong about their success for cool climate chardonnay out of the adversarial vintage. A “war of attrition” perhaps and some losses but in the end more wins, but you have to buy and taste these wines to find out. Ilya agrees that sometimes “you have to get out of the fruit zone,” and not just with respect to pinot noir. The mineral aptitude and stony goodness of this cracker ’21 Senchuk chardonnay will not be denied. Not to mention at 12.5 percent alcohol we need to look past lean and consider magical conversion rates. See for yourself. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted July 2024

Cloudsley Chardonnay Twenty Mile Bench 2022, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

Always a mix of Wismer fruit, of Wingfield and Foxcroft, same bat fermentation and same bat channel. Wild ferment that is, followed by 18 months in French wood with one-quarter or so being new barrels. Balance of the old and new, the buttery and the grippy, the soft and the profound. A recurring fruit theme for 2022 with less tension and tightening as compared to say ’19 and ’21. Getable as chardonnay though persistent in its inherent cool climate origins. Still it will attract more and more consumers who hold preconceived notions about the idea of chardonnay. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted July 2024

John Szabo M.S., Godello and Malivoire’s Shiraz Mottiar

Malivoire Chardonnay Mottiar 2020, VQA Beamsville Bench

In a state of grace resolve on course to deliver its best at every step of development. In the heart of the matter now, primary yet moving forward with finespun caramel right ahead. So well conceived and made to honour its origins. Last tasted at i4C, July 2024

Sure there is a full and subtly opulent quality to the Mottiar 2020 but from the beginning there is confidence and balance. Always this way but ’20 is special in that regard, comfortable in its skin and so sure of what it brings to the chardonnay table. Beamsville Bench beauty and bounty, acidity so sweet and developed it feels like it has not yet acted just like this before. A hint of paraffin and beeswax, a lilt and a rise in beats here and there but most of all freshness and that aforementioned surety of conviction. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted July 2023

Blomidon Brut Réserve NV, Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia

Put to bottle in 2019 and so five years on lees ain’t nothing to develop complexities, eccentricities and potential variability. This pour comes out of sound and vision, disgorged in March of 2024, set to be released in the early Fall. Makes great use of 2016 and 2017 fruit, plus a small amount of the frost vintage 2018. Youthful, appropriately Blomidon Peninsula/Annapolis Valley tightly wound and in a way very chardonnay, though not glaringly so. “For us this is the future for non-vintage,” explains Simon Rafuse, “and to save the cooler vintages for Blanc de Blancs.” It’s a reverse engineering kind of approach. Simply put, in cooler vintages you can’t push wines through malolactic and so chardonnay is best purposed for sparkling when acids are high and pH levels are low.” Like 2011, but not 2010 and Rafuse adds that “the problem is you have to wait many years to see the results. But it’s worth it because they are really good.” True that. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted at i4C, July 2024

Dean Stoyka and J-L Groux – Stratus Vineyards

And there were visits

Stratus Vineyards at Bar Ruffino

Stratus Brut Nature Zero Dosage 2013, VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake

J-L Groux explains that the main factor for making this kind of sparkling wine is PH, “because the aromatics will be built upon six to seven years of lees aging time.” J-L feels this ’13 is going to be the winner now, and for 20 years. Not far off it would seem because of the “partial disgorgement” method, well within VQA rules and thus you arrive at a toasty smoulder unlike any other sparkling wine. The lees are the thing, in fact they are everything. They prevent the aromas and the wine from oxidizing. Amazing. Last tasted July 2024

Comes across a bit cloudy, at least as compared to the B de B with thanks to the natural, lees left intact style. The citrus component is so pronounced, as is the taut, direct, lean and intense manifold destiny of what is truly a singular Sparkling wine. That being a living, breathing, inhaling and exhaling wine, slowly releasing proteins, acids and realizing its B de B Nature dream. Just amazing what lees can do for sparkling wine. Tasted July 2021

Released side by each with the Stratus Blanc de Blanc 2013 and while vintage and grape are the same, the similarities almost seemingly, ostensibly and allegedly end there. Yes in fact this 100 per cent chardonnay is a child of the most excellent varietal vintage and like the B de B spent six years on the lees. Comparisons cast aside it is the very fact that because much of the lees were transferred to bottle by a minimalist’s disgorging that this cloudy bubble with a Canadian artist’s series set of labels can’t help but elicit another memory. The Lilies of Monet and their clouds represent neither the horizon, nor the top or the bottom. Nor does a bottle of this Zéro Dosage Brut. The elements of water, air, sky and earth become intertwined in a composition without perspective, or so it goes in this hazy, opaque and dry as the desert sparkling wine. So many layers of lemon can be peeled, juiced and scraped away. If a Stratus wine could be a a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma then here it is. The texture here is palpable and the intrigue factor surely high, so it should be imagined that longevity will be this wine’s calling card. It’s more austere than the Blanc de Blanc but I think in fact it will. Drink 2022-2029. Tasted November 2020

Stratus Chardonnay Reserve 2002, VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake

Harvested between October 4th and 6th which for J-L Groux was early, akin to harvesting in early September in the Stratus world of today. Barrel fermented for 350 days in a mix of new, second and third fill French wood. Low(ish) acid and high pH vintage from the vineyard purchased just two years prior. The team went about immediately reducing yields from eight to two tonnes per hectare, “direct to concentration,” says J-L, who at the time partnered with Peter Gamble to make this rare iteration labeled as a Reserve wine. They selected barrels for this premium chardonnay and truth can feel counterintuitive because many years after having tasted the (Non-Reserve) 2002 it is this ultra varietal bottle that shows impossible freshness. Persistent in reserve, laden with grapefruit and as much texture as wood is want to impart. Well, actually a bit less than expected but as a chardonnay expression with the same fruit the special barrels chosen have come about with such a different result. Less preserved lemon, wax, late bitters and oxidation. Therefore sharper and fruitier while in the end likely just what Peter and Jean-Laurent were looking for. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted July 2024

Stratus Vineyards Retrospective at Bar Ruffino

Stratus Chardonnay 2009, VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake

Late pick (November 10th), high acid, smoky and smouldering chardonnay, connecting it to a course of action for those that are made today. A precursor and one that the winemakers surely look back at and draw upon for current preoccupations. Especially Dean Stoyka who stirred some lees and learned how to get his chardonnay through malo during his Niagara College educational days. Looking at 2009 helps to consider the sparkling wine program because the specs and style of this wine are clearly inspirational towards that end. Last tasted July 2024

Comes off like a white blend, aka Stratus White but this is the outright, unchaste vintage talking. Winemaker J-L Groux crafted three wines with viticulturist Paul Hobbs. Here they split the project 50/50 with Hobbs including wild yeast fermentation and whole bunch pressing and J-L adding short skin contact, controlled yeasts and no whole bunch pressing. From extreme low yields, this one puts on a show after only 10 months in barrel. High on aroma, brazen in texture, ambient in flavour bites. Very Niagara if inexactly Chardonnay. Tasted March 2014

Stratus Chardonnay Bottled with Lees 2015, VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake

Medium acid and low pH year, picked across September which is early (and necessary because acids would have waned) but what matters most are the lees kept in bottle. To develop aromas over time and ward off oxidation. So unlike the 2009 tasted side by each, here from a “winter damage year” tells Dean Stoyka. Small crop, somewhere between 88 and 91 tonnes (the number changes form time to time), average heat and precipitation. Serious chardonnay concentration, fruit persistent, in great shape and a better wine today than it showed as seven years ago. Last tasted July 2024

The 2014 vintage was essentially the first year when barrel lees would be left in the bottle and my how conservative this ’15 really was as compared to an evolution that culminates (currently) with the full on lees filled chardonnay vintage. Quite the opulent vintage mixed with aromatics still morphing, developing lees, brash and blushing by 40 per cent new oak, complimented by generous acidity. Showing with controlled drama and though the yields were low (only 88 tonnes) there is something quite special about this emotionally charged, vivid, scarce and remarkable chardonnay. Last tasted July 2021

Stratus Amphora Chardonnay 2022, VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake

“Slightly, maybe three times more oxidative than a barrel,” explains Dean Stoyka as it pertains to amphorae. Kind of surprising but then again there needs to be a good reason for choosing these tight-grained Tava Amphora baked at higher temperatures, especially as compared to Georgian Qvevri. More oxidation means more lees and more lees means kept freshness plus the ability for aromas to develop into complexities over time. As for a a second kick at the chardonnay in amphora can by Stratus well then assessment out of expectation also triples and the learning curve realized by Stoyka becomes three times the fun. Where is the reference point? Who cares because the nurturing of this fruit and palate caress conspire to create a feeling, as if you have known this wine your whole life. A matter of great positivity and understanding. Dios mio, man. Longevity should never be questioned and reasons why never argued. Keep at it, keep on keeping on. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted July 2024

Hillebrand Trius Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2000, VQA Niagara Peninsula

Nutty, flor oxidative and 24 years of age. From a very cool year and J-L Groux’s roots as a Niagara winemaker. Reluctantly fresh and honestly a good showing at this ripe old age easily into a time when the ideas and thoughts of mortality and finality can’t help but creep in. Though the wine would not shine to the dispassionate it does cause a stir of interest to a group of writers, influencers and sommeliers, all happy to drink one glass. Kudos to the Stratus team for offering up this cool piece of chardonnay history. Tasted July 2024

Dobbin Estate Vineyard & Winery

Dobbin Estate Vineyard & Winery Chardonnay 2019, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

This may be just the first stages of Dobbin’s tenure making high end wines from the Twenty Mile Bench but auspicious does not begin to describe the level of sophistication marking these beginnings. The erudite oenological consulting team of Ann Sperling and Peter Gamble have taken chardonnay into territory they are quite familiar with but always keep in mind that top terroir, vineyard conditioning and uncompromising preparation are what collectively set this up for success. This 2019 is from a cool climate vintage out of a cool climate place and recent history tells us that these are chardonnay that live good, long and healthy varietal lives. Luxe yet still crunchy, high quality wood used generously if judiciously and in the end this kind of rocks the world. In a chardonnay way. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted April 2024

The Tower at Dobbin Estate

Dobbin Estate Vineyard & Winery Cabernet Blend 2019, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

From a cool vintage, long one though and cabernets cropped at the lowest of the low – less than one tonne per acre. ”A drinkable style,” says Peter Gamble and “I like the ‘19s from Niagara for that reason.” Pretty much a 50-50 final blend, almost too easy if by design and immensely popular with those who know, but also those who do not necessarily know the how or why. This is not a Caymus drinker’s red but it will inform and in turn impress they who should do better than their muscle memory habits of consuming over ripened, elevated alcohol, sugary reds. The ’19 is not particularly structured as a cabernet squared though the modelo drinking window is a good one. Last tasted July 2024

First release for the new, high-end estate found on the Twenty Mile Bench with this stylish, Right Bank in make-up cabernet franc (inclusive of 15 percent merlot) having been sourced from a mix of the Homefront along with Creek Shores and Four Mile Creek. Oenologists Ann Sperling and Peter Gamble have consulted from the beginning and this is what would be considered a “Peninsula” wine because the fruit is drawn from three very different micro-climates. Sure seems like single site iterations are the future once each have been trialled and understood but for now the mix makes for a treat of layering and integration. Chic, full, substantial and generously oaky in the classic Sperling-Gamble style for full-bodied but never over the top Bordeaux reds for Niagara. The wood lends sweetness, fine chocolate ganache and a smoothness that is a hallmark of their wines. They did not go for structured broke in this inaugural bottle but the result is dreamy and leaves an impression, without seemingly trying to be impressive. No doubt a Napa Valley feel here which is always a compliment as it pertains to Niagara reds. The only qualm is the lack of franc-ness but that feels somewhat intentional. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted April 2024

Tasting at Dobbin Estate

Dobbin Estate Vineyard & Winery Riesling 2019, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

Classic and balanced, concentration meeting at the intersection where a righteous mix of sugars and acidities form layers from. Vineyard blocks are what define the intention and i turn the results of this riesling. Nothing overt, neither by salinity or sapidity, though their are hints, shadows and subtleties indicated by both. And so the requiem for this riesling’s success lies in its ability to please without speaking loud or acting with any sort of impunity or demand. This is why people who know nothing about riesling will gravitate to enjoying this as a glass of a special white wine. And those who get it will be hard pressed to label or pigeon-hole it as Ontario. The inclusion of some botrytized grapes has something to do with this. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted July 2024

Dobbin Estate Vineyard & Winery Riesling 2020, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

A much warmer vintage for all of Niagara and with riesling the difference between 2019 and 2020 is truly the proverbial might and day. Almost an about face style with the ripest and juiciest ripe fruit, lower sugar and (less botrytis) but truth be told there is more richness and flesh in 2020. Intensity by implosion and higher sugar number (15-16 g/L) as compared top 10.5 fro 2019. Unrelenting flavours and a profile more Germanic than that more chiseled and muscular ’19. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted July 2024

Ed Madronich holding court at Flat Rock Cellars

Flat Rock Cellars

Flat Rock Cellars Pinot Noir Foundation Series 2022, VQA Niagara Peninsula

The separation between Foundation and Gravity is essentially barrel selection with the winemaking being the same. So specific to this place, rusty and busy tart fruit, a mix of plum and cranberry, always curious, always complete. Gently and fluidly volatile, crunchy at its peaks and low rumbles in the valleys. A 5,000 case production (on average) as compared to 1,000 of Gravity. Never a question that this is and represents Flat Rock. Last tasted at i4C, July 2024

No questioning the ripeness on all fronts, to the edge and precariously so with maturity and also a glycerol meets acetic set of circumstances. As such there is a raw cookie dough note, also potpourri and natural medicinals. A very specific tang carries the flavours and the sensation of style is duly noted. Gets chalky and the acidity takes over on the backside of this distinguishable pinot noir. Drink 2024-2025. Tasted July 2024

Flat Rock Cellars Pinot Noir Gravity 2020, Twenty Mile Bench VQA

Warm vintage and about as high-toned that Gravity as pinot noir will ever be. A tight and to be frank also austere iteration that still remains and persists in this state of the unforgiven. If a Gravity has ever needed for time than this 2020 is certainly up for debate. Muscular, concentrated, broad shouldered, full of texture and buzz in its extremities. There is plenty of substance and so when the wine settles in it will do what intention asked it to do. Last tasted July 2024

Jury’s still out on the season’s relationship between pinot noir, Niagara and especially the tattooed effect painted by the Escarpment’s benches. Gravity ’20 is still showing some early earthy, fermentative aromatic volatility by way of bread dough, tar, strawberry red fruit and coniferous-evergreen energy. Some stem inclusion surely, an early pick on acidity in a warm year, strength in maceration and equally pressed so that the Ontario greens also come through on the flexed rope of tannins. Like hastily hand-stretched pizza dough popping holes, or pulling liquorice too fast and causing cracks. Gravity is meant to fall softly downwards, gracefully and gently. The sour accents speak another language, a bit unfamiliar and yet the track record of this wine deserves respect and time. Jury will be hung and a new one will come back in two years for next assessment. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2022

Flat Rock Cellars Pinot Noir Gravity 2010, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

Really warm vintage, one of those in that time that ripened fruit to the max and so pinot noir went where it so boldly wished to go. One of those substantial examples that has surprisingly lasted deeper into its tenure than assessment of that vintage would have predicted. Good showing today and some duck prosciutto would work really well alongside. Last tasted July 2024

Reels in Twenty Mile Bench fruit in a warm vintage as well if not better than any of its peers. Founder Ed Madronich is clearly slope and soil obsessed and this Pinot Noir is a study in topography and geology. To paraphrase Madronich, it’s ”more Pommard than Volnay, in a deeper and more masculine way than the Estate bottling.” Pinot barrels most representative of the Gravity style were chosen for the final blend, in this case noted by woodsy black cherry and spiced root vegetable. “Get a little savagery in your life.” Tasted twice, April and December 2013

Flat Rock Cellars Chardonnay Foundation 2021, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

Middle road traveled, taken and projected for chardonnay definitive of a 25-year study by Flat Rock makers to arrive at this time. Lovely, juicy, prolific and in its Flat Rock way also a quintessential Twenty Mile Bench example of chardonnay What more needs to be said? Last tasted July 2024

Foundation Series: Our Classics redefines the Flat Rock entry to market and gateway for their chardonnay. If you’ve been tasting these wines for a decade or more you’ll recognize these aromas from a 2021 that resonates of the house style. Inviting, somewhere between vanilla crème frâiche and lemon crème brûlée, soft and demure. Creamy palate texture, a swirl of butterscotch ripple curd and easy drinking all the way through. Many will find this soft but it’s best considered as a comfort food kind of chardonnay. Drink 2023-2024. Tasted October 2023

Flat Rock Cellars Chardonnay The Rusty Shed 2021, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

If the Foundation delivers a quintessential Flat Rock chardonnay experience than The Rusty Shed takes it further. More substantial fruit and aromatic muskiness if less immediate joy and juiciness. No shock because RS is a wine that can and will age with this being one of those vintages that fit the bill. Reminds of 2011 or 2013, or maybe a combination of the two with the modern world of love and varietal development taking chardonnay from FR to new heights. Will hit the zone sometime later this year or early next. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted July 2024

Flat Rock Cellars Chardonnay The Rusty Shed 2013, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

A more than appropriate vintage to pour side by each with 2021 because they share that Flat Rock Rusty Shed affinity of chardonnay needing some time to open up before delivering the juicy, gelid and fleshy character they will almost always eventually do. The ’21 will get to this place and few Niagara or Bench chards can go light years ahead into such a place of beauty. Just knew 2013 would get there and what a joy to be here with it. Last tasted July 2024

It’s as if this label had bided all this time to be the benefactor of 2013 fruit. This Rusty Shed, this 20 miler with the track record to age, a wine that sheds baby fat over a 10 year mineral through echelon stratum, in ways few other peninsula to bench chardonnay can do. This Jay Johnston handled surfer of a wine, buoyant and balanced, centred and able to withstand turbulence, oscillation and tidal sway. Here with sumptuous and spiralled fruit gaged in lode intervals and a tartness held in lope and line by a membrane of extract and tannin. Best ever. Showing well, repeatedly and to forecasted repute. Impressing critics and consumers alike. Bravo. Drink 2016-2025. Tasted June 2016

Flat Rock Cellars Riesling Nadja’s Vineyard 2021, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

A savoury, mineral and waxy Nadja as riesling, citrus as high and spritzed with energy as it will ever be. Not a vintage of concentration but rather one that is structured and so bloody specific to the vineyard higher up upon the estate’s step of the Niagara Escarpment. Flat Rock is perhaps the only estate with this level of elevation change, as much as a 10 story building from the this top vineyard to the (pinot noir) bottom. A place of air flow, equidistant to the lake and to the top of the Escarpment. Crisp, crunchy, tart and high level intensity, even for Najda. Need to wait a few years to see what next steps it will take. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted July 2024

Flat Rock Cellars Riesling Nadja’s Vineyard 2006, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

Tough vintage but are they not the ones that find the magic of aging to deliver a wine like this? Phenolic and mineral as the saltiest of Nadja rieslings, ultra aromatic and a bit yeasty but the vintage had much to do with this. The rest is soil and location, up on the Twenty Mile bench on a second step up towards the crest of the Niagara Escarpment. Crunchy in every way, citrus as always but accentuated here (as it will repeat 15 years forward with 2021) and as Nadja, so very recognizable. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted July 2024

Chey Ryan Crawford’s Fried Zucchini Blossoms

Le Clos Jordanne

Le Clos Jordanne Pinot Noir Villages 2021, VQA Niagara Peninsula

A few more red fleshed drops of fruit after only three months further in bottle. Fine impression gained from these Jordan Bench blocks acceding a seamless layering and all is right in this Villages world. Last tasted July 2024

Off the top a more structured pinot noir vintage for Le Clos Jordanne and the aromatics are not shy to announce their swaggered arrival. Bigger bones and flesh hanging tightly, tannins very much apart of the mix, holding firm, lightly chalky in constitution and a notable wine meant for aging, surely be design. Very different to the 2019 and 2020 LCJ pinots which is both curious and effective. Drink 2025-2028. Tasted April 2024

Le Clos Jordanne Pinot Noir Claystone Terrace 2021, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

This is a first kiss with and assessment of Claystone Terrace aboard the Twenty Mile Bench which Thomas Bachelder sets the record straight for how it is a contiguous tract connected with the terroir of the Jordan Bench. What it shares with Le Grand Clos Vineyard is a west to east gradation that moves from the structured to the blowsy. In other words every block acts differently but also incrementally and when their individual barrels are assembled they are done so to make the best and most balanced wine with nuts, bits, bolts and pieces drawn out of each gradation. From 2021 the softer aspects shine on because austerity and tension just don’t hold court as strong as they might in some cooler and also much warmer vintages. More middle road (for Claystone specifically) and the beneficiaries of such a pinot noir are all of us. Still another year will soften the last of the tannins and gripping tension. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted July 2024

Le Clos Jordanne Pinot Noir Le Grand Clos 2021, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

As with Claystone Terrace the Grand Clos Vineyard blocks running from west to east move through this fruit gradation from structured and austere through to soft and amenable. For 2021 the middle ground is duly noted with a signature and arch classic Jordan/Twenty Mile Bench pinot noir that sings in youthful life as early as it ever has. The team (Thomas Bachelder, Kerri Crawford and Phillip Brown) have coaxed out the sweetest natural fruit. While it flows with ease it’s also equipped to slow down, reflect, and then re-emerge a few years thereafter, post pause and not atypical varietal dumb phase. Th3 2021 is found to be chic, suave and stylish as ever, fruit in a dark red cherry state and acidity meeting texture for mouthfeel of a most finessed kind. Drink 2025-2031. Tasted July 2024

Chey Ryan Crawford’s Salmon Sack

Le Clos Jordanne Chardonnay Villages 2021, VQA Niagara Peninsula

Something about the Goldilocks vintage for chardonnay brings the three LCJ wines closer together. Villages may lack the complexities of Claystone Terrace and Le Grand Clos but its juiciness, open aromas, flavours and texture are all there. When you consider price there is no debate in how much value this offers and the gentle spice masala on all parts of the palate are really special. The attack of CT and le roi cru block LGC are there, albeit here less grippy and weighty, but Villages gives all that you want and need. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted July 2024

Kerri Crawford – Le Clos Jordanne

Le Clos Jordanne Chardonnay Claystone Terrace 2021, VQA Niagara Peninsula

The Claystone Terrace attacks direct into vision, up the olfactory and drilling into the cerebral cortex, no holds barred, nor does it wait to express anything it needs to say. Like a blast of sunlight straight out of the west on a late July afternoon, not blinding but warm and inviting, though not what would be considered subtle. This speaks from the vineyard in a more substantial way than Villages and also Le Grand Clos, if not quite at the level of aromatic and textural complexity of the highest tier, signature chardonnay. CT scans your senses and takes hold of them. It is anything but tripping the light but it is quite fantastic. Captain Claystone fantastic. The bomb for 2021 as a Le Clos Jordanne chardonnay. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted July 2024

Le Clos Jordanne Chardonnay Le Grand Clos 2021, VQA Niagara Peninsula

Feels like a bit more easterly block fruit from barrels chosen for the 2021 Le Grand Clos because there is a softness (though far from blowsiness) about the mouthfeel and mellow flavours. The Claystone exhibits more drama and while complexities are on par it is this LCJ that should actually be consumed sooner rather than later. Thinking however that more folks would love and appreciate this style from this vintage. Last tasted July 2024.

A bit sweet it needs saying straight away from wood aging that mixes with fruit quite ripe though not seductively so. Surely cool climate and well judged but the barrels do lend some oily texture and weight to this otherwise fine chardonnay. Solid mid-weight example. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted blind at #NWACS24, June 2024

Westcott Vineyards

Westcott Vineyards Chardonnay Reserve 2022, VQA Vinemount Ridge

Like Block 76, also from the home farm of 26 acres on the Vinemount Ridge. Warmer parameters for richer and well-developed chardonnay cut through with fine chiseling because of the limestone bedrock beneath the slim soils for what can be best described as Westcott salinity. Reverberations and consequences are a mix of quantifiable component and marbling, also with thanks to the mix of 95 and 96 clones. Reserve always comes from the same rows of two blocks and while it may have once been a barrel selection, over time it has come to abide by the strictest regimen of only those rows. A retro Reserve if you will with a return to fully celebrating specific fruit no matter the vintage or circumstances. What separates this chardonnay is more than concentration, but rather the underlying salinity that is more pronounced that that of the Block 76. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted July 2024

Westcott Vineyards Chardonnay Estate 2016, VQA Vinemount Ridge

Amazing how age can be a graceful and beautiful thing and the ideal truly applies to Westcott’s Estate chardonnay. The ’16 was made by then winemaker Arthur Harder and subsequently blended and bottled by Casey Kulzyck. Now in a pretty good place, fine and refined, Still some linger of primary fruit. Last tasted July 2024

This is one of the first near-premium chardonnays to hit the market from 2016 and so a decision needs to be quickly made if the style is more vintage or house in origin. There really isn’t any estate precedence for this superabundance of fruit on the “normale,” like Christmas coming early or Niagara peaches appearing in June. The ripeness goes beyond freestone fruit and into the tropical realms occupied by mango and pineapple. There is no denying the nectarous and appetizing nature so I’d like to think it’s really a seasonal somewhereness that drives the druthers. Drink this young and with some poached seafood. It will satisfy the pairing. Drink 2017-2019. Tasted July 2017

Chef Tim Mackiddie’s Scallops, Cavatelli and Chardonnay – At Butlers’ Grant, Wetscott Vineyards

Westcott Vineyards Chardonnay Butlers’ Grant Old Vines 2022, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

Old Vines refers to the 1989 planting of Clone 76 on a 5.08 acre block on the northwest side of the 43 acre Vineland Bench property. The long and rectangular chardonnay block culminates on the southeastern side at Butlers’ Workshops and is paramount for a site that was a grower’s vineyard up until the Westcotts purchased the land that immediately abuts the Bruce Trail. So many c’s are apt descriptors for this chardonnay; copacetic, coalescing, conditioned and commendable. From a recalcitrant vintage in some ways, adversarial and short of crop but the chosen fruit seemed eager to please and access feels easy. Concentration is impressive and immediate gratification is on offer. Extract and tannin take this to another level and so the probabilities are positive for a chardonnay you may choose to age. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted July 2024

Westcott Vineyards Pinot Noir Butler’s Grant Carolyn’s Block 2020, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

From the block closest to the house planted to the 667 clone. Youth still the understatement, vintage accessibility be recognized and quickly cast aside. A mix of flintiness and delicacy when rich and fat could have been this pinot noir’s everything. Not in this case. Last tasted July 2024

From riesling to chardonnay and now pinot noir, all planted in 1988 under the name of Butler’s Grant and here the pinot is dedicated to Westcott proprietor Carolyn Hurst. A clone first iteration, or at least one owning as much as site itself because vinous, resinous and intense is what oozes from this Twenty Mile Bench wine. Hard to find this much varietal expression so reminiscent of some Beaune counterparts because austerity, intensity and implosive behaviour are all compounded with tough love, seriousness and respect. The vintage gives and is in turn captured for a wine that will command your undivided attention, in part because some suspected whole bunch fermentation just seemed like recssecity is the mother of invention. Need is the primary driving force behind Carolyn’s strong-willed pinot noir. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted August 2023

Westcott Vineyards Pinot Noir Butler’s Grant Carolyn’s Block 2019, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

The 2020 Carolyn’s Block is something joyous but get a scent of (a now well-aged) 2019 and the aromatic world changes dramatically. A vintage advantage and clearly a pinot noir in need of time to set it aromas straight. From eccentricity to complexity, wildly spiced and now entrancing. An affinity with Cuesta the the south and Hanck to the north yet perfectly idiosyncratic in between. Some sweet seduction, ripe acidity and organza texture. Tasted July 2024

Westcott Vineyards Pinot Noir Butlers’ Grant Old Vines 2019, Twenty Mile Bench

Funny aroma to begin, paint or something metallic but also tomato purée. Verdant as well, chalky and chewy, ready to rock and roll. Something amiss or at least distracting but there is this great palate presence and structural appeal. Silkiness and wood define the finish. Drink 2022-2025. Tasted blind at NWAC2021, October 2021

Westcott Vineyards Pinot Noir Butlers’ Grant Old Vines 2020, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

Elevated concentration, of course, but an immediate burst of energy and immediacy really command attention. Spice and potpourri, full and up front, unabashed, without hesitation, standing vertical to be noticed. Clone is 828 planted in 1988 on the southwest corner of the Vineland Bench property. Explicit varietal assemblage curving to the substantial to decide the outcome for pinot noir designed to please. The gratification is underscored by a mineral underlay to say that tine is on side. Two more great years and two to for more with positive secondary characteristics. Last tasted July 2024

Dark fruit, ambitious and tannic. Bold and structured pinot noir from a hot summer clime. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted blind at #NWACS24, June 2024.

Westcott Vineyards Pinot Noir Butlers’ Grant Old Vines 2019, VQA Twenty Mile Bench

The second harvest of this block foreshadows what will be concluded as a dramatic difference between the ’20 and this ’19 residing in the arena of the vivid. A level of chalkiness and therefore structure now explain why tasting this early would have been confusing to deduce how clone and place will conspire for great pronouncement. This Twenty Mile (or Vineland) Bench geology directs the show and old vines concentration does the rest. Who knows, maybe Carolyn’s Block will act like this 28 years from now. For now Butlers’ Grant Old Vines is the one in command. Last tasted July 2024

Westcott Vineyards Brilliant Traditional Method Blanc De Blancs, VQA Vinemount Ridge

Winemaker Casey Kulczyk explains how chardonnay is always picked at a minimum 19 brix which not only influences but extends flavours and also exaggerates texture. Plenty of acidity mind you though the complex profile wins over all else. Sees 30 months on lees and makes every iota of their use to accentuate and autolyze for increased extensibility, plasticity and the aforementioned flavour. Yes this shows smoother texture and strengthened chains of mousse. Westcott’s sparkling processes are at the head of the game. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted July 2024

Westcott Vineyards Brilliant Traditional Method Blanc De Noirs, VQA Vinemount Ridge

As with the Blanc de Blancs the pick is done at a minimum 19 brix and lees aging time is 30 months. The mix of chardonnay, pinot noir and meunier shows off ample freshness and sharp acidity, leading to boundless energy tethered with creamy flavours. Red fruit prominent but the truth lies in mellifluous textures ruling the day. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted July 2024

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WineAlign

Eyes on Bolgheri’s future

Mar19

Bolgheri

The allure of the Etruscan Coast, its accessible inland plateau, emerald wine-growing hills and what is affectionately referred to as La Macchia Mediterranea have attracted great investment into Bolgheri. The region’s most famous reds are known to be big, luxe, bold and structured, most commonly as blends of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot. In many cases these Bordelais treatises are accented with additions of syrah, petit verdot and on rare 21st century occasions also by sangiovese. The most endemic of Tuscan grapes predates the expatriate varieties with its own parochial, rich and important history. Vermentino now makes up 10 percent of all plantings and that number is sure to increase in earnest because of the need for climate adaptation and a demand to satisfy changing consumer tastes.

Foraging for Porcino, Castagneto Carducci

Just a shade under 1,000 hectares planted to vines in Bolgheri produce nearly 500,00 hectolitres or more than 550,000 cases annually. The DOC for Bianco and Rosé wines were written into Italian law in 1983, followed by Rosso in 1994 as Bolgheri Rosso DOC and Bolgheri Superiore DOC. At the same time Sassicaia was awarded its own sub-zone, Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC and then partitioned as a separate DOC in 2013. The Consorzio di Tutela Bolgheri e Bolgheri Sassicaia was founded in 1995 and is responsible for the protection of DOC Bolgheri and DOC Bolgheri wines. No other key Italian wine consortium is as compact and teams up as harmoniously with 73 members strong whose vineyards represent 99 percent of the territory’s overall hectarage.

Finding Puppole (or Mazze di Tamburo) in Castagneto Carducci

Bolgheri’s demarcated growing area is concurrent with the political boundaries of the Municipality of Castagneto Carducci in the province of Livorno, with the exception of the stretch of coastline west of Via Ulvino Aurelia. The area’s construct is akin to a natural amphitheater with the Colline Metalifere to the east that gradually slopes downwards towards the coastline so typical of the Ligurian sea’s platform push. Here the cause and effect is two-fold; Flysch (an alternating sequence of sedimentary limestones, sandstones, and shales, the beds of which are thin, regular, and alternating) is this frazione‘s ace up the sleeve. That and the Galestro (schisty clay with friable white, grey, blue and charcoal rocks) typical of the greater territory are the soils with which all of these producers have in their vineyards to some varying degree.

La Macchia Mediterranea at Castagneto Carducci

Thickset forests cover the hillsides and anyone who has had designs on foraging for autumn mushrooms or simply chosen to have a walk will concur with having experienced the woven thicket that must be stealthily navigated to make any real progress through the dense brush. This veritable Tuscan jungle serves a great and refreshing purpose, that is to maintain and protect a complex ecosystem and breathe great life into vines (and olive trees) sharing valuable space and resources. The tiered hillsides slowly descend towards the central arena marked by a flat if ever so gently sloping terrain (in a way reminiscent of Mendoza) where most of the vineyards grow. The distance from vine to water is anywhere from six to 13 kilometres as the crow flies, where the Tyrrhenian sea is dominated by the Tuscan archipelago and Corsica visible at a vanishing point upon the horizon.

Elena Brachini – Tenuta San Guido

Tenuta San Guido, its founder Marchesi Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, Marchesi Nicolò Incisa della Rocchetta and current Consorzio Vice-President (as well as Primum Familiae Vini President) Priscilla Incisa della Rocchetta will always reside at the heart of Bolgheri. The Grand Vin Sassicaia was first released on the market with the 1968 vintage and today continues to act as benchmark for the region’s wines. The Consorzio President is Guado al Tasso’s Albiera Antinori of Marchesi Antinori and the other Vice-President is Le Macchiole’s Cinzia Merli. In 2023 Godello visited Bolgheri on two occasions. The first in late May, to gregarious Grattamacco and grand Tenuta Argentiera. The second in early November, to the Bolgheri unicorn estate of Podere Il Castellaccio, movimentata Le Macchiole, veramente un azienda enorme Tenuta San Guido and again to Grattamacco. These are the 32 wines tasted on the occasion of those two excursions.

The view from Grattamacco

Grattamacco

The organically certified Grattamacco estate originally founded in 1977 on that Maquis shrub-land as Bolgheri’s second winery became part of the Colle Massari Group in 2002. Siblings Maria Iris and Claudio Tipa are Grupo Colle Massari, proprietors of four Tuscan properties; Montalcino’s Poggio di Sotto (2011) and Tenuta San Giorgio (2017), along with Montecucco’s Castello Colle Massari (1998) and Bolgheri’s Grattamacco with its perfect view of the Castello di Castiglioncello. Bolgheri’s modern wine production may be less than 100 years old but its rise has been swift, its potential a gold mine and Grattamacco has marked its presence from the earliest days.

Hills above Grattamacco

The name Grattamacco or Gratta Macca translates as “scratched iron.” When Colle Massari purchased 12 new hectares at Casa Vecchia it was sangiovese that was planted straight away, while a full cellar renovation followed 11 years later, in 2013. The endemic Tuscan grape variety sangiovese is well-suited to the estate’s unique Galestro and Flysch soils with their alternating sequences of sedimentary limestones, sandstones and shales. That orogenic belt’s design now helps to breathe light and elegance into the region’s full-bodied Bordeaux blends made with cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot. Grattamacco’s are thankfully not the most powerful of Bolgheri’s wines but they are its truly sapid outliers, indelibly stamped with the sangiovese, a sense of place and no compromise to acidity.

Tasting room at Grattamacco

Grattamacco also constructs Bolgheri’s unicorn wine, made from vermentino off of the first such local vines planted in 1986 and this white wine has not only changed the landscape for the grape in Tuscany’s coastal areas, it promises to be its future. Vermentino ages in new Chassagne Burgundy barriques and with the rapidly changing climate there will be more wineries choosing to eschew the likes of problematic merlot for vineyard space dedicated to the virtues of vermentino.

Davide Torchio at Grattamacco

With 29 hectares in production Grattamacco’s labels comprise four wines: Vermentino Bolgheri DOC, Bolgheri Rosso DOC, L’Alberello Bolgheri Superiore DOC and Bolgheri Superiore DOC. The cellar is marked by stunning stained glass designed by Michael Zyw. Famed oenologist Luca Marrone and winemaker Davide Torchio’s usage of a peristaltic pump system, the Piedmontese technique of cappello sommerso and natural fermentations are what give the reds their advantage and silken textures. The sangiovese is the tie that binds, the catalyst to raise the perception of acidity in Bolgheri reds of grace, charm and greatness.

In the Grattamacco Cellar

Grattamacco Vermentino Bolgheri DOC 2021

A reminder that this is vermentino from the oldest such vines in Bolgheri. Storied vineyards blessed by a terroir of “argilla bianca.” The chalk in the soils is crucial to the personality of this wine, lending en elemental salinity because magnesium is much more prevalent than sodium. In fact the lees creaminess and alcohol are what effect the balance and without their inflations this might be too “salty” a vermentino. Meanwhile this 2021 always seems to be in its right place. Last tasted October 2023

Good rains in February and March, dry all the way through and then some rains in the middle of September to delay harvest, for the better, to achieve a great ripeness level for vermentino. Such fruit changes the landscape for the grape in Bolgheri and the wood (one new and seven used barrels, all from Chassagne) lends just a popping or piquing of spice on the back of the palate. An exotic or tropical and cloudy fermentation transforms into the cleanest and fleshiest fruit gathering with essential structure to see the best years in fact lay ahead. That being three of four years forward. But drink it now. Why not and what could go wrong? Wait 30 minutes and it may just smell like roasted rosemary potatoes. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted May 2023

Enoteca Tognoni, Bolgheri

Grattamacco Vermentino Bolgheri DOC 2013

If you happen to pop a bottle of the historic 2013 vermentino from Bolgheri’s original varietal wine do not be bemused by a little bit of mustiness. Open the closet and window to let the two airs mix before passing judgement. Perhaps a moment of cacchi (persimmon) like botrytis marks the next entry but what is most prevalent is the white clay-limestone-schist smoulder of fruit and soil that conspire with 10 years gone by to affix this vermentino into a lovely situation. Acidity fixed is acidity persistent. This is not a perfect wine but it does open a portal into Bolgheri vermentino looking retrospectively in ways no other can offer. Drink 2023-2024. Tasted November 2023

Grattamacco Bolgheri Rosso DOC 2022

Bolgheri Rosso is first and foremost a vineyard selection, mainly from the youngest vineyards but also a first pass/pick out of the older blocks. There may also be some vats destined for Superiore that are shifted to the Rosso. A challenging follow-up to what was a very good 2021 but 2022 is up to the task, especially because the cabernet franc thrived in this vintage and it does not end up in the Superiore. This franc comes from vineyards new and old, suitable for the bigger wine but with respect to style and tradition it only ends up here. Even at just 25 percent the franc speaks loud and clear. The merlot makes up (30) with cabernet sauvignon and sangiovese rounding out the rest. The fact remains that this ’22 is a seriously structured Rosso, more than that ’21 and this tells us how much high quality fruit is diverted here, not to mention the increasing maturity of those younger vines. Succulent and top tier acidity puts this in high steading. It stands to be counted and counts out time. Will drink with distinction for five to seven years easy. 120,000 bottles produced. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted October 2023

Grattamacco Bolgheri Rosso DOC 2021

The fruit first Bolgheri Rosso is 30 each cabernet sauvignon and merlot, (25) cabernet franc, (10) sangiovese and (five) petit verdot. Could age longer than when it is released (after one year in September) but cellar master Davide wishes it could rest another year. So very “Mediterranean” and in the early stages the red fruit is strong, overpowering the spices and pushing the merlot too up front. With age the franc especially and its aromatics will emerge, as they are just about imposing their will right now. The sangiovese is the tie that binds, the catalyst to raise the perception of acidity and make it all happen. The cabernet sauvignon will linger and last above all else, sending this “Classico” through the years, with its sweet tannins in tow. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted May 2023

Grattamacco L’Alberello Bolgheri Superiore DOC 2021

Same blend percentages as 2020, of 70 percent cabernet sauvignon with (30) franc and so youthful to make the 2021 seems like it’s just as big a vintage but we just know the balance tells us otherwise. Freshness on steroids, rich in cherry fruit depth mixed with the Flysch earth and dried herbs weaponizing the berry liqueur. Savoury, serious and needing to be re-tasted next fall to really gain an understanding of aspects more than predicated on potential. Meanwhile these tannins are fine-grained, chained, intentional and propositional. Drink 2026-2034. Tasted at Prowein, March 2024

Luca Marrone – Grattamacco

Grattamacco L’Alberello Bolgheri Superiore DOC 2020

Two cabernets involved, head-pruned, two hectares of 16 year-old vines in a single vineyard. Alberello training is unique and essential for the future of the sauvignon (70 percent) and franc, field picked and co-fermented, built on acid structure with a liquidity spiced by black pepper and what just feels like Sardegnan mirto. Beautiful if just ever so slightly rustic field blend. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted May 2023

Grattamacco L’Alberello Bolgheri Superiore DOC 2013

Impossibly near perfect shape for this field blend’s amelioration 10 years forward from 2013 to 2023 with Grattamacco’s cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and petit verdot. Belive the idea that secondary character is only a recently transacted transition, acidity has not been suppressed and tannins have only sweetened. The succulence and continued speculation serve notice that no supplication is necessary to see the best in this Rosso, also because energy is never compromised, not for a moment. This bottle is in excellent shape. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted November 2023

Mushrooms of Castagneto Carducci

Grattamacco Bolgheri Superiore DOC 2020

The “skinny” vintage, surely not as fleshy as the bookending years on either side but also the sneaky one, possibly destined to outlive them all. Very Mediterranean aromatics, something akin to garrigue but cleaner and less vegetal. Both crunch and chew, a combination of before and after, ying and yang. All right and no wrong in 2020, tight and closed now but given 20 minutes the wine will open up, better yet taste it the next day, even without sealing the wine overnight. Tannic structure exceeds the promise of Rosso and also Alberello though there is no compromise to acidity. Truly sapid. Made with 65 percent cabernet sauvignon and near equal parts between sangiovese and merlot. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted May 2023

Grattamacco Bolgheri Superiore DOC 2013

L’Alberello 2013 shows energy and exuberance but what of Superiore? Two feet in the soil that’s what but not only is this Rosso as fresh as the day it was conceived, it’s also mature and wise, experienced even beyond its 10 years from vintage. If L’Alberello is a teenager than Superiore is a young adult, both perfect compliment to one another. Tasted side by each they both work wonders with the fresh porcini of the current vintage. Drink 2023-2028. Last tasted November 2023

So fortuitous and surely fascinating to travel back ten years for a look at the Rosso Superiore. Where does it stand in terms of freshness, verticality and longevity? This is the wine simply referred to as “Grattamacco,” spokesperson and flagship, spinal label to tell the story of this place and the ColleMassari dedication. Unfortunately there is some TCA and so the tannins are brittle and dry. 120,000 bottles produced. Tasted October 2023

With Cokie Ponikvar and Jeremy Bonia – Agriristoro La Cesarina, Castagneto Carducci

Grattamacco L’Alberello Bolgheri Superiore DOC 2020

No doubt time is the catalyst towards explaining more and more subtleties, idiosyncrasies and eccentricities of an Alberello-trained field blend like this creative and singular red by Grattamacco. Really showing its chalky structured personality six months later and this shows how it’s working through its adolescence. Six further months should see that chalkiness liquify and create the most stunning textured example of Bolgheri Superiore. When all is said and done, peccato di gioventu” Rushing belongs to humans, but nature will always follow its own pace. Last tasted October 2023

Agriristoro La Cesarina, Castagneto Carducci

Grattamacco Bolgheri Superiore DOC 2020

Was released in April 2023, just ahead of the last tasting and now six months forward there is no movement, literally not an iota. What is noticed is the presence of a certain saltiness, predicated on the vineyard where magnesium is stronger than sodium and so the Grattamacco elemental salinity energizes without obstacle. For oenologist Luca Marrone this vintage sides more to cool then warm and you can’t rush its progress. As predicted the tannins and overall architecture of the Superiore is the most formidable of all the Grattamacco wines, not to mention the one wound taut with great and measurable tension. You can cut it with a knife. Be patient, as a taster that is not a luxury afforded, but as a buyer it is a must. Last tasted October 2023

The “skinny” vintage, surely not as fleshy as the bookending years on either side but also the sneaky one, possibly destined to outlive them all. Very Mediterranean aromatics, something akin to garrigue but cleaner and less vegetal. Both crunch and chew, a combination of before and after, ying and yang. All right and no wrong in 2020, tight and closed now but given 20 minutes the wine will open up, better yet taste it the next day, even without sealing the wine overnight. Tannic structure exceeds the promise of Rosso and also Alberello though there is no compromise to acidity. Truly sapid. Made with 65 percent cabernet sauvignon and near equal parts between (15) sangiovese and (20) merlot. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted May 2023

Alessandro Scappini – Podere Il Castellacio

Podere Il Castellaccio

Attention Ontario sommeliers and agents. Speaking directly to you. These beautiful wines from Podere Il Castellaccio are the freshest in Bolgheri, most made from endemic varieties; sangiovese, pugnitello and foglia tonda. Top echelon work from Alessando and Enrica Scappini. In the Bolgheri area their’s is a vineyard with forty years of history and only they are protecting varieties that have disappeared from local winemaking. Their work concentrates on salvaging these ancient varieties because they are inextricably linked to the tradition of Tuscan wine so specific to Bolgheri.

Forest above Podere Il Castellacio

Podere Il Castellaccio Ardiglione Vermentino 2022, Costa Toscana IGT

A coastal vermentino that is a blend of three components, skin maceration, some aging time in wood and also amphora. Scents of the not far away sea and the green hills combine for a sweetly herbal, subtly phenolic and in the end salty vermentino. The vineyards are closer to the sea than the red vines and this second vintage of Castellaccio’s white is a win. There is also this white balsamic and pine nut character that is so very local. True identity of place and that is so crucial to the success of this kind of wine. Yet another reason to opine on how vermentino will be such an important part of Bolgheri’s future. The wood and the clay refining will see this age for a few extra years to become something even more interesting later on. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted November 2023

Dinostro, Podere Il Castellacio

Podere Il Castellaccio Dinostro Sangiovese 2021, Toscana IGT

Alessandro Scappini’s grandfather grew endemic varieties here in Bolgheri where thaye have been cultivated since the 1960s. They may not jive with the last forty years of what Bolgheri has concentrated upon but Scappini considers them the heritage of this place. They are sangiovese, pugnitello and foliotonda. These are the original peasant grapes of the poderi and their DNA has been preserved to plant more vines. There is no doubt that a Bolgheri red like this is expressive of more identity and heritage than what the Bordeaux grapes can even fathom to deliver. There just feels to be a connection with the wines of Roberto Stucchi (Badia a Coltibuono) because this feels like sangiovese growing with forests all around, green in the ways of flora, but not ripeness. There is a rustic notion here but again it’s more of a country one and this sangiovese is indeed elegant. There is Gaiole and there is Bolgheri. The affinity is kind of uncanny don’t you think? The difference is the Mediterranean (or Ligurian) feeling gained, of resinous green herbs, evergreen and the sea. This is the tightest of all Il Castellaccio’s wines, high in acidity, seriously tannic though they are neither brooding nor baritone. Not austere neither but they are serious and they are profound. That said the fruit is like red lightning, a strike of intensity from that which is tart and also über fresh. This captures the essence of Castagneto Carducci. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted November 2023

Valénte – Podere Il Castellacio

Podere Il Castellaccio Valenté Vitigni Autoctoni 2019, Toscana IGT

As particular a red blend as there is in all of Bolgheri, first because it’s not a DOC wine and also not just any IGT. It is a blend of the three endemic local varieties grown by Alessandro’s grandfather on the estate since the 1960s. They are sangiovese, pugnitello and foliotonda, the middle of which is connected to and revered with equal level at San Felice in Castelnuovo Berardenga. In total the average age of all three sets of vines is 50 years. The ferments see two weeks of maceration, raising the glycerin levels before the wine ages in large Slavonian cask and concrete. Acids are in control and this glaringly logical, local blend may be from 2019 but its persistent freshness is undeniable. Truly important work for Bolgheri. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted November 2023

Somatico – Podere Il Castellacio

Podere Il Castellaccio Somatico Pugnitello 2021, Toscana IGT

Truly rare varietal pugnitello with just 300 or so hectares of vineyard planted in all of Italy. The vines are 50-plus years of age, Guyot trained and growing in mineral soils of Galestro outcroppings coming from schist. Deep hue and such a spicy red (though truly purple) Bolgheri example. Chalky though silken in its liquidity and and tannic presence that’s so unlike sangiovese, in fact there’s something more akin to cabernet sauvignon or franc in this wine. This is spezzatura by way of pugnitello, something that would likely be planned and crafted but the result just feels effortless and so very real. Drink 2025-2031. Tasted November 2023

Orio – Podere Il Castellacio

Podere Il Castellaccio Orio 2022, Bolgheri DOC

Moving away from autochthonous varieties and now into the denominational wines with the three varietal blend of 60 percent cabernet franc, (30) merlot and (10) syrah. Vines are 10-20 years of age and aging happens over 12 months in second passage, 500L tonneaux. There is a temptation to automatically think that the French grapes will take away from the place and the resulting wine to be so different than those made from endemic varieties. But you can’t take the place out of any of Alessandro Scappini’s reds and so the evergreen, brushy herbs, balsamic and sea air are all in this wine. So is extra richness and peppery piques or bites with tobacco moments and chalky ground espresso on the finish. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted November 2023

Il Castellacio – Podere Il Castellacio

Podere Il Castellaccio Il Castellaccio 2021, Bolgheri DOC

The Superiore is a two-part harmonic bend of mostly cabernet franc plus pugnitello from the Alberello-trained vines up on the hill of a terroir known as “cisto di galestro di scheletro. Sees a year in both barriques but also clay amphora which puts this in a whole other Bolgheri light. The French wood certainly lends a richness, depth and spice cupboard set of elements but the texture accedes a new manifest destiny because of the clay. The biggest though not what should be looked at as a baddest red wine, on the contrary the freshness is captured as with all of Il Castellaccio’s wines. The length on this wine is exceptional, exceeding all of the others and so it is deserving of the flagship calling. Profundtà e lunghezza. These are the elements that set this apart. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted November 2023

Old vines at Le Macchiole

Le Macchiole

There have been opportunities in Ontario to taste the Bolgheri wines of Le Macchiole over the years, but now there is greater understanding after this first visit with agronomist Elia Campolmi, winemaker Luca Rettondini and proprietor Cinzia Merli. Decades of commitment and the development of 10 vineyard plots around the denomination see the fruition of their work today best explained as modestly profound. The estate plots travel from the sea to the hills of Castagneto Carducci at 220m of elevation on 32-33 total hectares.

Cinzia Merli – Le Macchiole

Puntoni Vineyard was planted in 1994 and Vignone in 1999, both to cabernet franc, syrah and merlot, Casanuovo went in the ground in 1998, to cabernet franc and syrah; Casanuovo 2 in 2009 to cabernet franc, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc; Casanuovo 3 in 2013 with cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon. Sommi Vineyard was planted in 2015 with all four red varieties. Casavecchia and Ulvino are more recent plantations, back in 2016, the first only with syrah, the second to cabernet franc, merlot, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc. Livrone Vineyard dates to 2020, only to cabernet franc. Finally it was Quercione (syrah and cabernet franc), Lamentano (syrah and cabernet franc) and Vallone (merlot) back in 2021.

Elio Campolmi – Le Macchiole

An optical sorter was introduced in 2023 and the cement vats date to 2003. Some Cappello Sommerso (Piedmontese-style submerged cap) is used in some of the fermentations. Pours included a mini vertical of Paleo (cabernet franc), Scrio (syrah), Messorio (merlot) and Bolgheri Rosso. Fascinating to witness the transformation from argile stratificata and salty sea breezes into these wines of tension and emotion.

Le Macchiole Bolgheri Rosso DOC 2021

What Cinzia Merli introduces as “our Bolgheri blend, a wine that is the “Classico” for the denomination.” Blends the four red varieties of Le Macchiole’s 32-33 hectares of vineyards, led by 55 percent merlot, then (15-20 each) cabernet franc and sauvignon, rounded out with (10) syrah. One of the more suave and refined Bolgheri Rosso from anywhere in the denomination with an aromatic tug between fresh roses and balsamico. Silky and yet for what feels like the first time is it’s perfume, structure and freshness that do everything to make mouthfeel the lesser of this wine’s many sensations. Plenty of emotion however and while this is a very drinkable wine it’s so much more than that. The syrah grows on the hill where it receives even more marine saltiness on its skins then it would were it planted on the flats. And so it acts as both salt and pepper seasoning the merlot and cabernets. Everything is elevated and captured in this vintage, culminating in a thorough and captivating Rosso. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted November 2023

Paleo – Le Macchiole

La Macchiole Paleo 2021, Toscana Rosso IGT

Bottled quite recently, around six weeks ago so this is kept in mind. That said the cabernet franc (especially) of Le Macchiole may be the most aromatic of all in Bolgheri so there is little shock this youthful 2021 is right there from the beginning. Yes it needs some air and agitation but it’s also 2021, an impressively structured vintage that dresses and acts as linear and vertical as any of the recent past. The tannins are all fruit and no wood, as are the spices and seasonings. Fruit is a hyperbole of itself, a double entendre of 2020 multiplied upon itself to entertain as 2021. Exotic and salty, depth of entangled clay out of which friable rock sears into memory and cuts through like a diamond for a red Bolgheri wine indelibly stamped from place. The potential here is palpable, to create feelings and elicit emotions but in the end the salinity really incites tension and tang. Wow vintage of Paleo. Drink 2026-2034. Tasted November 2023

La Cantina – Le Macchiole

La Macchiole Paleo 2020, Toscana Rosso IGT

Paleo takes up where the Bolgheri Rosso leaves off and exaggerates perfume, not quite times 10 but surely to a few squared degrees. The red to purple fruits, fresh roses and balsamic are hyperbolized and made beautiful to great end. Add in elements reminiscent of pencil lead, graphite and dried wild herbs but here the 100 percent cabernet franc is what Cinzia Merli calls movimentata. Paleo was once blended with cabernet sauvignon and sangiovese but is today a solo act from the various cabernet franc plots collectively acting varietally intense if also obvious as it gets. The key is to find equilibrium In the wine’s density and 2020 could not have been the easiest to decipher. Warm vintage overall, especially in concentrated times if thankfully ideal through harvest. The wood is generous and important but it is already melted, integrating and at this stage acting as seasoning for welcoming cabernet franc. Will be ready for the commercial market in March of 2024. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted November 2023

La Macchiole Paleo 2013, Toscana Rosso IGT

Nearing 10 years of age and showing remarkable freshness from a wine that at the time was 100 percent cabernet franc, dating back to 2001. There is zero surprise to find this wealth of generous aromas because, well this is a wine made by the aromatic genius that is Le Macchiole. Very special in that varietal is not only captured but exulted, made the star and preserved for decades so that wines live long and stay true to their nature. A vintage of heat but also really long maturation, of mature tannins and wood usage in 2013 that was of a heavier toast and much more involved. Everything began to change beginning with the 2015 vintage but the truth is the kind of toast and sweetness of oak back then did in fact serve this wine well so that it can show the way it does today. He who would complain for a lack of freshness would not be paying attention to detail. Interestingly this vintage finished at 15 percent alcohol while the 2020 and 2021 fall in at 14, give or take. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted November 2023

Cabernet Franc – Le Macchiole

Le Macchiole Scrio 2020, Toscana Rosso IGT

Once again the wines from 2020 were a challenge but as long as the work was put in every day from vineyard through cellar it would become the friend of any willing and committed producer. This is Le Macchiole’s strength, with a team from field to table that worked so bloody hard to make are freshness and aromatic beauty stand front and centre in the wines. The exotic perfume of Scrio screams from the glass, of cinnamon, nutmeg out of 100 percent syrah that is the micro of micro productions. It’s syrah of Bolgheri so anything but easy though the salty skins from sea breezes blowing across the hills where it his cultivated make for a most uniquely seasoned varietal wine. The terroir is argilla stratificata out of which Galestro from schist manifests at the surface of the soils. Imparts a richness cut by slaty mineral in the syrah. Most curious and unlike any that you might think you already know. The rotundone is there but it comes with a twist. Will be ready for the commercial market in March of 2024. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted November 2023

Vineyard map – Le Macchiole

La Macchiole Messorio 2020, Toscana Rosso IGT

Combine the aromatics of Bolgheri Rosso, Paleo and Scrio to arrive at Messorio because the fresh roses, balsamic and exotic spicing are all here in this 2020. But there’s more, of fresh herbs and dried hillside brush before you realized you’ve been nosing this wine for 10 minutes without having yet taken a sip. Then the linearity meeting richness of flavours, palate attack and texture all add up to the most accumulation of any wine inLe Macchiole’s profile. Graced by and soaks up more new wood than any of the other wines yet receives it all so well, integrates the barrel into the fruit of the wine’s labour and exacts structure like no other. An impressively composed, compressed, accumulated, vertical and intense 100 percent merlot that delivers grape, place and handling with substantial distinction. Finishes with a return of fruit freshness to reinforce the idea about a Messorio that will travel far and long. Will be ready for the commercial market in March of 2024. Drink 2025-2034. Tasted November 2023

Tenuta Argentiera

The name Tenuta Argentiera derives from ancient Etruscan silver mines and the peninsula’s first metallurgy. The wine estate is a project that began in 2000 by the Fratini brothers at the southern end of the Castagneto Carducci area on the site of the ancient Donoratico Estate. Formerly the summer home of the notable Serristori family of Florence, the estate has been owned by Stanislaus Turnauer since 2015. The southwest oriented vineyards are 23 years old, on 84 hectares of a total 150 of the estate. Soils are generally Flysch and calcareous marine in origin. Today there are six base wines, down from what was once 40, namely because the team have qualified the cabernets and merlot into their cru sections. The syrah goes into 30,000 bottles of Rosé. Federico Zileri is Chief Executive Officer, Leonardo Raspini is General Manager, Massimo Basile is Sales & Marketing Director, Fabio Fedeli is Direttore Commerciale Italia and Nicolò Carrar is the Winemaker.

The vineyards of Tenuta Argentiera

Tenuta Argentiera Poggio Ai Ginepri 2021, Toscana IGT

Amazing freshness for a warm place, 40 percent each merlot and cabernet sauvignon, (15) cabernet franc and (5) petit verdot. Rich and herbal cool, not mint but certainly other locally scented verdancy. Fruit just seems to come away sweet and succulent. Tannins are never austere or even dry, the wine is all about these varietal aromas, even their green parts. Great vintage. A wine that just works on every level for so many markets. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted May 2023

Tenuta Argentiera Villa Donodoratico Bolgheri Rosso DOC 2021

Tasted side by side with Ai Ginepri, here with 45 percent cabernet sauvignon, 40 merlot and 15 split between cabernet franc and petit verdot. From a much more complex soil and merlot grows with the aid of water retention that also serves to exte the ripening season. The greens are still here but they should be and must be celebrated. They come from the geological flysch system of these old soils. So much texture and a cupboard of spice but also a structure that will begin to really open in two, better still three years time. The transparency of red fruit is a direct result the vintage and while it is young. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted May 2023

La Cantina, Tenuta Argentiera

Tenuta Argentiera Bolgheri Superiore DOC 2020

A “vintage with two souls,” first drought and not so much heat but then quick ripening in August, especially at the lower elevation growing merlot. September rains arrived and changed the ripening of cabernet sauvignon. Very ripe merlot and “classic” pyrazine cabernet sauvignon. Reds and greens and back again. But the delay of the cabernet made for elastic stretched tannins and combined with the merlot resulted in a true marriage of disparate parts. This is the sneaky one. Drinking well already and will so for 20 more years. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted May 2023

Tenuta Argentiera Bolgheri Superiore DOC 2017

Such a challenging vintage and yet Bolgheri found a way to succeed, as seen especially in this Superiore. Humidity was maintained in the soils despite no rain and yes, more than impressive freshness has been preserved. Acidity is not the best ever but it does perform solid yeoman works to extend the life and energy in this blend of 60 cabernet sauvignon, (35) merlot and (5) cabernet franc. A most floral vintage which is exciting and enticing. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted May 2023

Tenuta Argentiera Bolgheri Superiore DOC 2015

A celebrated vintage in Tuscany and most certainly Bolgheri while 2015 ages gracefully with the greens still intact. ripe but not too ripe and more than ample acidity. The blend is 55 merlot, (35) cabernet sauvignon and (10) cabernet franc. The palate is where the acidity and piquancy really attack the back of the sides of the mouth. Great ambling length. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted May 2023

Tenuta Argentiera Ventaglio, Toscana IGT 2019

Amazingly aromatic varietal cabernet franc. Spice cupboard, liquorice, tar, roses and so much black tea and also olive. Herbal cool, some Amaro, the cabernet franc so specific to the place and the respect it so righteously deserves. No need to compare to anything Right Bank because the Franc does not act like this anywhere else but it is duly suited to these calcareous-flysch soils. Drastic and dramatic wine, vivid and full of energy, pulse and even some hypnotics. Great, great vintage. Wait one more year. 4,000 bottles are made from just one hectare. Drink 2025-2034. Tasted May 2023

Barrels at Tenuta San Guido

Tenuta San Guido

The estate is 250 hectares in total, veramente un azienda enorme, with approximately 100 hectares under vine. A place famous not only for Sassiccaia but also Ciocco e Duna, le cicogne (storks) di Bolgheri. Each of the vineyards are cultivated specifically for the three estate wines, Le Difese, Guidalberto and Sassiccaia. Sangiovese is only used in Difese with cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot for Guidalberto and Sassiccaia. The history is of two Antinori marrying two Incise (cousins) and this is why the two families have been linked for so long, especially for international distribution of their wines. Niccolò Antinori was at the centre of the transformation to major business activities.

Carlo Paoli – Tenuta San Guido

Each vineyard is a small parcel completely surrounded by forests and so harvest takes a long time, up to four weeks, usually moving from east to west, from the sea to the hills. Sassicaia is transferred back and forth between barrels for a settling of the sediments, to clean the wines and thus to eliminate filtration before bottling. This system went into effect withy the opening of the new cellar in 2008. Carlo Paoli, Tenuta San Guido’s General Manager and Production Manager has been with the estate since 2009.

La Difese, Guidalberto and Sassicaia

Tenuta San Guido Le Difese 2022, Castagneto Carducci, Toscana IGT

The modernist blend of Tenuta San Guido and while it is considered by many as an IGT of thirds, the truth is 50 percent or more sangiovese qualifies Le Difese as its own entity, also because the vineyards that supply the fruit are cultivated specifically for this purpose alone. Carlo Paoli certifies 2022 as a vintage of excellent and harmony, no matter the heat because growing conditions, especially at harvest time were more than ideal. The ability to pick grapes over a month long period identified parcels and secured acidity to make ripe if balanced wines. There is an energy and a fervour to Difese, a spry aspect and a lovely swirl of liqueur present and fortuitous as Bolgheri in the wine. The season’s warmth puts the sangiovese in blood orange territory and overall there is a serious juicy quality to the drinkability of ’22. Also the sensation of black olive and just that right amount of structure to carry this forward for an appropriate four to six years. Approximately 150,000 bottles are produced. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted November 2023

Tenuta San Guido Guidalberto 2021, Toscana IGT

No movement to speak of in fact the wine has gone a step or two backwards as compared to 70-odd days ago. At this time the knowledge of great structure and verticality are kept in mind to explain the grip, impenetrability and drying skins at the finish. Walk away and don’t come back for at least a year and preferably more. Last tasted February 2024

Hard not to see 2021 as a unique vintage and while Guidalberto may be viewed more as a second wine to Sassicaia then Le Difese is a third, there is a distinct feeling that it stands alone, especially out of a vintage like 2021. A season of warmth but after staggered starts before arriving at a fine conclusion. A vintage quite proper for Bordeaux varieties within a context that requires both ripeness and acidity to be captured. Those acids are very present in a Bolgheri (as IGT) wine that wears the local balsamic notes on its sleeve. That and a gentle swarthiness but also a sense of structure that is pliable, extendable and elastic so that the vision of this wine could very well be that of a decade and a half. Guidalberto Gherardesca planted the cypress trees on the estate, which incidentally stands alone and away from Sassicaia, so even more reason to see this as a separate entity for Tenuta San Guido. Not forgotten is the constantly engaging perfume of Guidalberto, yet another reason to imagine the many possibilities and transformations that lay ahead. Drink 2025-2036. Tasted November 2023 in Toronto and November 2024 at Tenuta San Guido in Bolgheri.

Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia 2020, Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC

The cabernet sauvignon dominated Sassicaia is more demure and reserved in 2020, or at least that’s how it acts at this near three year mark post vintage. Less perfumed at this stage than the 2019 was showing when assessed in September of 2022 but there are shadows and meanings hidden in the chiaroscuro that will surely begin to emerge with the first warm days and weeks of 2024. Still there is great structure and architecture in the 2020 Sassicaia from its 27th vintage as a Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC to set this grand vin up for decades of slow, sure and incremental evolution. Succulence is noted in both the fruit and then of course the acids to remind us that Sassicaia is always the most elegant, secure and divined example of Bolgheri. It’s presence as an own DOC entity is not taken lightly nor is there any gratuity, certainly not from the 2020. As a vintage it seems 2020 was misunderstood early but as time goes by the excellence comes into focus one wine at a time. The advantage of making an example from something like Sassicaia explains so much and there will be a great future, likely past 2040 for this grand dame of Bolgheri. If Guidalberto 2021 is any indication, that Sassicaia will be one for the epochs. Drink 2025-2040. Tasted November 2023

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WineAlign

Chianti Classico 2023: A year in review

Feb27

Godello
(c) Jamie Goode

Just 11 days ago the 2024 edition of the Chianti Classico Collection closed to a resounding and successful conclusion. There was the prodigal ambasciatore as per usual, also wearing his badge as journalist, in position at the Stazione Leopolda tasting tables before 9:30 am on Thursday. There he remained, steadfast and inchoate through 200 glasses of Gallo Nero before being the last one out at 7:00 pm Friday. No time to pause for reflection, nor wane in concentration because the sangiovese encouraged onwards by the Consorzio’s production and presentation of recent, nascent and exceptional vintages could easily sustain a high level of energy. Godello investigations, visits with producers and interviews with next generation offspring continued through the month of February. These first days of the 2024 season have seen nature and vines surely caught in a prolonged state of confused awakening but hot damn the weather has been incalculably beautiful. Unseasonal temperatures have risen into the high teens and despite intermittent rains (plus hail at the upper reaches of Monte San Michele) the region had come upon the culmination of a week straight of crystal clear blue skies to see Chianti Classico vineyards and its many villages bathed in golden winter light. Though the rains and cooler temperatures have now finally arrived, “winter” has shown to be traditional in timing only, because Spring had already sprung here in the Chiantishire.

The true Galestro

Previous to this 2024 excursion there has not been any published material on Godello since a lengthy summary in coverage of the 2023 Chianti Classico Collection that took place now more than one year ago. Godello homecomings to the territory did in fact happen in May, July, October and December of that calendar year during which wines were both tasted at every turn and tasting notes committed to WineAlign pages, however no articles in synopsis or cumulative analytical thought had to date been published. That is until now.

Godello, Manetti, Goode and Szabo

In May of 2023 Godello played ambassadorial chaperone to nine Canadian Sommeliers representing as fine a national cross-section of that professional vocation as there has yet been assembled. The group consisted (from east to west) of Jeremy Bonia (Raymonds, The Merchant Tavern and Portage – St. Johns, Newfoundland), Alana Steele (Little Oak Bar, The Ostrich Club and Crush Pad Club – Halifax, Nova Scotia), Isabel Bordeleau (Institut de Tourisme et d’Hôtellerie du Québec), Cokie Ponikvar (Wine Vlogger, candidate for Master of Wine and Certified Sommelier | WSET 4 – Toronto, Ontario), Kate Dingwall (Writer at Forbes, Vogue, Maxim, Toronto Life, Wine Enthusiast, Etc. and Dreyfus – Toronto), Justin Madol (Don Alfonso 1890 – Toronto), Lexi Wolkowski (Restaurant Parquet – Toronto), Maude Renaud-Brisson (Apero Mode and This is Wine School – Vancouver, British Columbia) and Andrew Forsyth (L’Abattoir – Vancouver). The intrepid Canadian wine geeks were treated to seven days of sangiovese, the Gallo Nero, 13 estate visits with full UGA tastings, a tour with the Mapman Alessandro Masnaghetti through Radda, Gaiole, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Vagliagli, Castellina and Panzano, a night in Siena and two in Firenze.

Goode, Harman, Szabo and Godello

In October of 2023 the next excursion brought together a smaller group to complete a similar deep investigative dive into the region, this time with WineAlign colleague John Szabo M.S. (Toronto, Canada), Dr. Jamie Goode (Wine Anorak and latest book Regenerative Viticulture – England) and Emily Harman (Vina Lupa – England and Berlin, Germany). La squadra da sogno. This trip saw to 22 estate visits, a Gran Selezione tasting of 91 wines and another three-hour tour with Alessandro Masnaghetti taking in the Val di Pesa and ridges through San Donato in Poggio, Castellina, San Casciano, Greve and Montefioralle.

Calcareous rocks of Chianti Classico

Related – Forever in Chianti Classico

On a May tour with Masnaghetti the territory’s soils are considered, beginning with the Macigno (sandstones) which are lighter in colour, of less structure then the Formazione di Sillano which like the clays is darker and firmer of constitution. “It’s not only soil,” explains Alessandro, “I have to love the power. I love Alberese soils.” He tells the group that Galestro is the result of the degradation of shale and points out a rare 10m so of a vein in Panzano near Casenuove called Galestro focolaio, the “fire Galestro,” true and unique. Without exception something new and refreshing stirs where Chianti Classico wines are made. The ethos with sangiovese and its terroirs of Formazione di Sillano, Pietraforte, Macigno, Alberese, Argilla, Galestro and alluvial river stone soils meets at a new complex crossroads where new ideas and winemaking principles will challenge and potentially re-write the possibilities for this important region. Welcome to the future of Chianti Classico. The region and its eight communes share a commonality expressed in varietal and landscape but look to the maps, the ridges, hills and individual estates to note that there is more diversity than we can possibly absorb in one visit. When a visitor arrives in Chianti Classico they are intrinsically aware that the trip and each one that follows will add new dimensions to the legend and never-ending story. More to the point we are all hyper aware that the best is yet to come.

La nebbia di Radda

During the October week a tasting of 91 Gran Selezione opened the doors of perception to an appellation that has matured as it has grown by leaps and bounds since coming into play 10 years ago. The sangiovese (minimum 90 percent) and 11 UGAs (on labels beginning with the 2020 vintage) are collectively indicative of progress, intuition, incredible hard work and unlimited potential ~ This tasting was made possible by the Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico and a most positive response from the producers.

Monti del Chianti

A total of 372 wines were tasted over the course of those three 2023 Chianti Classico trips that occurred after the February Collection. The tasting note breakdown is as follows: Chianti Classico DOCG (112), Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG (64), Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG (126), VinSanto del Chianti Classico DOCG (4), Campione/Samples (9) and IGTs (57). These are the reviews.

Antinori Estate

Estate Visits

Antinori – San Casciano

Antinori Chianti Classico DOCG Pèppoli 2022, San Casciano

A blend of 90 percent sangiovese with (10) merlot and syrah. Typical, freshness at the forefront, maintaining the identity of Pèppoli which is a 67 hectare place in San Casciano, but also fruit from small smaller farms around Tignanello and other locations. All of this is not not easy to accomplish considering the production. Sees nine months in cask and while fruity, it’s also savoury and floral, not to mention cinnamon heart spicy. Very made, well and good for what and who it services. One million bottles. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted October 2023

Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Villa Antinori 2020

Includes fruit from the recently purchased Castello di Sansano in Gaiole – much of that will become a second Gran Selezione, as of the 2021 vintage with the UGA “Gaiole” written on the label. As with the acquisition of an old Antinori property, that being the Cigliano vineyards destined to create a Gran Selezione for San Casciano. Villa Antinori needs some air time to blow off some taut and closed features. Blow off it does and reveals impressive fruit, again considering that Gaiole, Castellina and San Casciano’s multi-estate fruit are all involved.The amalgamation conjoins to create a sweet, savoury and salty balsamic effect with some rounded and softness due to 20 percent merlot and cabernet sauvignon in the mix. Twenty percent of new Hungarian wood makes this even rounder, spicier and sweeter. Production of approximately 480,000 bottles. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted October 2023

Antinori wines

Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Marchesi Antinori 2020, San Casciano

Fruit comes from only Tignanello estate with a similar blend to the Villa Antinori but there is some cabernet franc involved. A deeper, more substantial and rounder expression of Riserva that will also age longer because grip and power take matters steps further than the Villa Antinori. Greater succulence and finer acids as well, a purity but also tannins that hold their ground, swell, swirl and work well to carry the fruit. French instead of Hungarian oak here and so the spice is muted. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2023

Precisely what must be expected and frankly demanded from Antinori’s San Casciano Riserva and that would be a perfectly executed cuvée of sangiovese complimented by varieties that speak to exactly that. Glycerol and viscosity in a silken thread sewing fruit with the kind of acidity and tannin of the utmost professional kind. Nothing out of place and the window has officially opened. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted February 2023

Antinori Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Badia a Pasignano 2020, San Casciano

Land purchased in 1987 and first vintage 1988. So very young and needing at least 10-15 minutes airtime to open and emit the piquancy of place. As much luxe riches as Badia a Pasignano pretty much ever expresses and mon dieu is this a mess of fruit, of all colours, a veritable hematoma of sangiovese. A matter of clays manifesting as Galestro aboard the surface in the soil of the vineyard. Last tasted October 2023

Classic dried herbs and brushy Badia a Passignano style, here with the accessibility of 2020 though the fruit is pure red cherry with almost no darkening moments. Cool, almost minted with a creosote and cooling coals warmth through the chill of the air. This Gran Selezione is imagined as a perfect meditation in late fall, in a cabin in the woods, by a fire, dimly lit room and silence. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted February 2023

Badia a Coltibuono

Badia a Coltibuono – Gaiole

Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico DOCG Cultusboni RS 2021

The “other” Chianti Classico with some fruit sourced off of the estate, other UGAs and villages, including San Casciano, Radda, Castelnuovo Berardenga and Gaiole. All sangiovese and mainly stainless steel for 80-90,000 bottles. Just about as fruit forward and well-rounded as any in the entirety of the territory. Turns a bit dusty though never tannic and finishes with a black cherry note – without ever descending into anything brooding or serious. The RS incidentally stands for Roberti Stucchi, proprietor of the estate. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted October 2023

Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Gaiole

The traditional estate blend, with canaiolo, colorino and ciliegiolo to compliment sangiovese. Two to three weeks of maceration, at the longer end from 2021 and for Gaiole this is just so Monti relatable with just about a 10 percent accent by Vagliagli within Castelnuovo Berardenga. Fine acidity for this Classico that hints at though stays quite clear of balsamico. Certified organic by Delineat, a private agro-forestry network now recognized by higher powers. The discipline includes solar work, carbon neutral footprint and lower levels of copper usage. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted October 2023

Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2018, Gaiole

Smaller crop, lighter due to rain in August and how it might descend in terms of concentration it conversely rises with herbals, rose petals, sweet verdant sways and spices, from pickling to masalas. Freshness at the head of Classico in Riserva terms. Last tasted October 2023

A Riserva from Badia a Colibuono is pretty much a Selezione matter and yet, not so much. The emotion is there if not the pack mentality and so Riserva is just Coltibuono. Almost startling to begin with but that is simply the acidity of place talking, distracting and exacting its power over a field blend-like gathering of varieties led by sangiovese. Riserva acts on behalf of and in the ways of the abbey and surrounding vineyards, were they personified would surely speak. Like the paintings along the cloister corridors and the occupants whose truths, history and tradition are what you need to hear. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted February and May 2023

Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Cultus 2018, Gaiole

What separates Cultus as a Riserva from the other is the fact that it began in 2001 as an Annata, moved to IGT (called Cultusboni, now the name of the second Classico) and recently switched to Riserva. Here sangiovese gains momentum and mellow roundness from several complimentary varieties, including pugnitello, ciliegiolo, malvasia nera, mammolo, foliotonda and sanforte. All in significantly riper, richer and liquid chalky with a tar, roses and juiced fennel effect. Just that soft touch of caramel and sweet soy. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted October 2023

Badia a Coltibuono Vinsanto del Chianti Classico DOCG 2014, Gaiole

“Our peculiarity is using large barrels,” tells Roberto Stucchi, making for less oxidation and also concentration. Acidity is key and for 2014 it runs more than relatively high. From malvasia and trebbiano finishing at 185-190 g/L of residual sugar, balanced by high acidity an edgdimg to the upper reaches of allowable volatility. Intensely citrus, all in from lemon, orange and grapefruit, but also a tart persimmon note. Low level caramel yet honeyed with a tisane quality to its character. Drink 2023-2036. Tasted October 2023

Badia a Coltibuono Vinsanto del Chianti Classico DOCG Occhio di Pernice 2008, Gaiole

The most unique Vinsanto made with only sangiovese and a much longer process, still in the larger and a small part in the half (caratelli) barrels. A vintage of top quality and quantity, quite different with sangiovese because it comes out much nuttier than the white grape cuvée. Some skin contact in the basket press happens post oozing and that contributes to the musky notes. Peppery as compared to the other Vinsanto with the citrus and cacchi (persimmon) aspect more marmalata in both aromas and also flavours. Sugars reach 210 g/L and yet alcohol does not rise too much, finishing at 13 percent because the yeasts are tough as nails. Wild ride in dessert wine. Drink 2023-2034. Tasted October 2023

With Alessandra Casini – Bindi Sergardi

Bindi Sergardi – Vagliagli

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

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

Bindi Sergardi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Mocenni 89 2018, Vagliagli

A bit warmer in Vagliagli as compared to the surrounding UGAs in 2018. There was some rain at the beginning of September after a very hot summer and harvest required three passes because there was some mildew pressure. Grapes were ready and “going away faster.” You can feel some maturity but also the blessed beauty of Mocenni’s elements, in rocks and stones feeding roots with nutrients. Very mineral. Truly. Lasted tasted October 2023

Mocenni 89 is Vagliagli Gran Selezione born of tough decisions, love, prudent selection and know this. There are vineyards on Alberese and Galestro to choose from that steal the show, gifting fruit that will steal your heart and likely also take your breath away. This is 2018 in a void, vacuum and shuttered universe, fine and graceful, full and forceful, designed and cared for, nurtured like few other Chianti Classico sangiovese. A Chianti Classico exception at the peak of the pyramid that will drift, glide and age slowly for decades. That is what we call realizing potential. Drink 2025-2038. Tasted February 2023

Bindi Sergardi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Mocenni 89 2016, Vagliagli

Now ’16 is in a great if tight place but still so much potential and truth is a bit backwards at this stage. Length is outstanding and so potential will be long and so promising, timeless, as it is said. Lasted tasted October 2023

A Gran Selezione from the Mocenni Estate in a wonderful state of equilibrium and almost calm suspension, of fruit at the pinnacle of vineyard selection with only two passages whereby the “lesser” grapes are taken out and the finest fruit is left until the first week of October to fully mature. Two years in large Gamba oak vats, Was an IGT from 2006, first GS vintage 2010. Sure these grapes from this vintage were some of the most consistent and non-variable of any recent vintage but the uniformity makes for a string and true set of wines, especially from Mocenni and up to this appellative level. Tasted October 2021

Mocenni takes all the advantage that 2016 can possibly pass its way and runs carefree into the wind. The fruit is pretty much as ripe as there can ever be in sangiovese struck by silver acidity and gold tannins, so you can imagine the result. This needs 10 years to fully unfurl, unwind and unfold. Please give it at least half that much time. Drink 2024-2034. Tasted February 2020

Bindi Sergardi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Mocenni 89 2015, Vagliagli

leasant, so pleasant and that is ’15 for Mocenni, caressing of texture and nurturing as much as any as you will find in Vagliagli. Red fleshed fruit, succulent as well but also in the acids and then this liquid chalkiness about how its evolving and maturing. Giving generously of itself in so many ways. Lovely!! Alessandra says it wasn’t acting this way last year. Timing is everything. Last tasted October 2023

There’s pure unbridled surprise in the delicasse and the gentility of this Gran Selezione, one of the more and even most charming of them all. The Mocenni texture is very present, very full, no holes, no peaks or valleys, just a calm and easy nature that finds no reason for stress. Pure fruit, Galestro and Alberese interwoven freshness. Proper, sweet and forward thinking tannins with a future ahead indeed. Drink 2020-2029. Tasted February 2019

Bindi Sergardi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Mocenni 89 2013, Vagliagli

The 2013 is so very different, quite unlike anything else that Mocenni has produced through 89 Gran Selezione. Rich and truly maturing but also because barriques were used and so it was different era through let’s say 2015. Really salty little sangiovese number back in 2013. Last tasted October 2023

The Gran Selezione Numero ‘1989’ is consistently 100 per cent sangiovese and here we are in wholly, truly, inexorably inorganic, fully stony soil, from vines planted in 1998. There is this composure and this understanding in Gran Selezione that is at the top of the pyramid chart, a fineness of tannic structure, a roundness of acidity and a perpetual motive and emotive fruit that will not give up or in. This is the Bindi Sergardi expression, sultry and offers up every reason to believe in the category. This is the GS that tells us why and how the top of the quality pyramid begins to be explained, with intrinsic value and great confidence from this 2013 vintage. Approx. $58-62 US. Drink 2019-2031. Tasted September 2017

Chianti Classico 2023 – Barrel Sample

Quality and quantity, but how? “It’s a miracle,” smiles Alessandra Casini. “Joking aside it is the stony quality of our vineyards that allowed us to get in, put in the hard work and fend off mildew. We also had a lot of luck. ” A taste of a 2023 sample that has just finished fermentation reveals power and structure from true-blue Mocenni tannin. Tasted October 2023

Canadian Sommeliers at Borgo Scopeto

Borgo Scopeto

Borgo Scopeto Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Vagliagli

Perfectly round and normal, dictionary entry sangiovese with softness and intensity of hue, by colouring and merlot as a friend of sangiovese. Tart and just tight enough to hold on for a few years but for the most part this is meant to be consumed in the first two. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted February and May 2023

Borgo Scopeto Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Vigna Misciano 2019, Vagliagli

Single vineyard, Misciano being the name of the place and has always been called that way, Clay and Alberese in geological origin, Galestro outcropping above. Perfect view from this hilltop spot, airy and reflective in this fresh-scented Riserva. Also stemmy, and indicative of the aromatic brushy, Toscana gariga profile. Sweet fruit, a little bit of soy induction by barrels and definite balsamic finish. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted May 2023

Borgo Scopeto Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2016, Vagliagli

Remarkable consistency in Vagliagli sangiovese, here with lift and sharper angles, red fruit incarnate and that unmistakable Mediterranean herbaceous quality. The volatile acidity is a bit pointed, carrying onto the palate at the present moment and though there are some years already in, a few more will be needed to settle all the parts. Tannins are proper and will only continue to help in the overall regard. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted May 2023

Borgo Scopeto Vinsanto Del Chianti Classico DOCG 2014, Vagliagli

Relatively traditional methodology though the grapes begin in larger barrels and when the volumes diminish they are then transferred to historically smaller caratelli. Very much a brown butter, nutty and dried apricot Vin Santo with more than an obvious honeyed element in play. Neither super concentrated nor cloyingly sweet but balanced and calming. Fine acids, chewy caramel and a note of citrus at the finish. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted May 2023

Errico, Marta and Gabriele Buondonno

Buondonno

Buondonno Chianti Classico DOCG Podere Casavecchia Alla Piazza 2022, Castellina

A finished wine already blended though drawn from a sample that will be bottled in December. A bigger production than normal and so a sangiovese of volume in more than one dimension. There was some rain in the summer to make the difference but not much, neither occurring too early or too late to compromise quality. Solo sangiovese in vitro projecting forward towards really important structure noted through some chalky tannins. Spiced and spicy notes, depth of fruit and also lifted acidty, all adding up to a Chianti Classico packed with more stuffing than many. This is as good as anything Gabriele has, but also now in collaboration with son Errico Buondonno have made to date. Drink 2025-2031. Tasted December 2023

Buondonno Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Casavecchia Alla Piazza 2021, Castellina

A finished Riserva already blended drawn from a tank sample that will be bottled in just a week or two. Voluminous and a Riserva so cool, ethereal and in this vintage’s case a salty mineral or elemental streak running through. The acidity here is special even for Buondonno and that matters more every year because warmth, aridity and rising alcohol all need to be counteracted so that balance will be the end result. As it is here the wood is noted on the nose, likely because of some newer tonneaux but there is no doubt it will integrate and quiet easily so within a year or two. Again it is a matter of the ethereal, herbal coolness and a Riserva so easy to appreciate when forged into an ultra fine sangiovese like this. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted December 2023

Marco Pallanti – Castello di Ama

Castello di Ama – Gaiole

Castello Di Ama Ama Chianti Classico 2021, Gaiole

The spice is so very quarried Ama rocks, Alberese mainly but also the Galestro that emerges and flakes above the soil. All of Marco Pallanti’s wines have their own particular style and balance and while this may be less powerful it is the land that exists and is so important towards seeing this wine’s eventual fruition. Last tasted May 2023

Ama by (Castello di) Ama is a richly textured and high glycerol Annata with all the wealth and generosity from the vintage captured, pressed and patented for a stamp of quality and guarantee of success. Crunchy red fruit and limestone strike, not quite high-toned but rising and ethereal as far as Classico is concerned. So well made and a harbinger for Gaiole within the greater territory for 2021. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted February 2023

Castello Di Ama Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Montebuoni 2019, Gaiole

The last vineyard planted (in 1997) and its grapes used to go into San Lorenzo. This changed in 2018 to make a step between Ama (Annata) and Gran Selezione. “A good introduction into the style of Castello di Ama,” explains Marco Pallanti. The suave and settled sangiovese of the three tiers, with richness in a marked Chianti Classico Riserva style. Warm, enriching, nurturing, acids coming in sweet and savoury layers to remind that this is indeed is a factor of Gaiole. Last tasted October 2023

“The wine is the goodness, to explain the place.” That being Montebuoni just 500m east of the Ama Borgo, just a bit different in exposure and soil conditions as compared to the Ama vineyards. A weathered place, reflected in the sangiovese and a perfect spot to create this go between, middle tier Chianti Classico. Feeling the tannins right now, as if the wine is working through something in order to pass over into beauty. Tasted May 2023

Quite the aromatic lift and high-toned entry for a 2019 Riserva that must be pushing generosity of ripeness and also alcohol. Warm and floral, viscous and layered. High octane flavour profile, generous of juicy red berry fruit and also barrel. Quite classic in a modern vernacular for a sangiovese (with five per cent merlot) that has come to pass and be recognized for more than two-plus decades now. Tasted February 2023

Direct descendant of Castello di Ama Riserva in a return to the appellation with this being the second such vintage. Falling somewhere between the Ama Annata and San Lorenzo Gran Selezione, Ama’s Montebuomi is so very Calcari, regardless of the level of appellation, intensely woven, idealized and structured. Such mineral virtuosity at the Riserva level captured however, linear, vertical and compact. A compression exists by dint of those vineyard soils and also the living and breathing Gaiole terroir. Drying for now, fleshing to come, settling in later. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted March 2022

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

Castello Di Ama Gran Selezione Chianti Classico DOCG San Lorenzo 2018, Gaiole

Aromatic, spicy, lifted and genuine. Extra layers, fruit of course and then floral, calcareously white peppery, luxe as per the appellative level and a matter of time. Vintage but also patience, the latter needed to understand the former, warm and developed, compact and yet never dense. To achieve this kind of acidity is remarkable. A matter of matching same parts to make up a whole. As per Marco Pallanti’s decades of dedication. “I am not a flying winemaker, I am a pedestrian one.” Drink 2024-2034. Tasted May 2023

Castello Di Ama Gran Selezione Chianti Classico DOCG San Lorenzo 2015, Gaiole

Looking back nearly halfway in time at Grand Selezione San Lorenzo (first made in 2010) is a most curious proposition. Frankly it is something to behold the freshness, not that this should be mature but it was enough of a generous and rich vintage. Complex aromatics, top ranking acidity and endearing piquancy. Last tasted October 2023

Though not technically a single-vineyard wine the fruit source depends highly on this portion of the Gaiole in Chianti estate. As a blend of all the best plots of the property from a vintage with both La Casuccia or Bellavista having been produced it is truly fortunate that nature gifted so much promising fruit so that the right stuff could find its way into San Lorenzo. It is Gran Selezione of great history and no vintage has been as generous as this ’15. It’s accessibility above and beyond the category is astounding, probably because it shares the finest and sweetest acidities plus tannins. The plural is employed because the complexities are varied and variegated. Wonderful red fruit and seamless integration. Drink 20-2027. Tasted February 2018

Castello di Querceto – Greve

Castello di Querceto Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Greve

Fruit from vineyards all located in the Dudda Valley on the estate with a 16th century fortress built to defend the local villages during the Sienese-Florentine wars. Clearly a vintage of concentration, iron-rich and other elemental chalkiness. Savoury elements have come forward while grip stands firm, first and foremost as tannins in charge. A vintage calling card example that needs a few months more before speaking in clear Dudda dialect. Approximately 250,000 bottles made. Last tasted October 2023

Fruit from vineyards all located in the Dudda Valley on the estate with a 16th century fortress built to defend the local villages during the Sienese-Florentine wars. Clearly a vintage of concentration, iron-rich and other elemental chalkiness. Approximately 250,000 bottles made. Last tasted October 2023 As far as 2021s are concerned there is great youth and an unrelenting wall of structure in this sangiovse (with eight percent canaiolo) from Dudda Valley in northeast Greve. Too much wood noticed at this early stage and so the tart, tight and sapid red fruit is held in tight, closed and yet to sweeten, flesh out or fatten for that matter. Wait at least 18 months more. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted February 2023

Castello di Querceto Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2020, Greve

Castello Di Querceto is one of the original 30 producers that formed the Consorzio, 27 years after Carlo François purchased the property. Riserva is intrinsically connected to Annata, especially now that the single Le Corte and Il Picchio vineyards are reserved for Gran Selezione. The red fruit in Riserva shows some pomegranate and currant piquancy while the wild things that grow in forests and along paths help to distinguish this as a most complex example of Dudda Valley sangiovese. Very Riserva style, a blanket covering cool fruit, a slight oxidative quality and longevity promised. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted October 2023

Castello di Querceto Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Le Corte 2020, Greve

Le 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

Castello di Querceto Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Le Corte 2019, Greve

The 2019 Le Corte from the OG François family vineyard that is now housing 55 year-old vines is here in its third year as a Gran Selezione. Just as big, brawny, powerful and in harmony as the 2018 though in a much more consistent way. Not that it’s round but it pleases sooner, with more mineral and saltiness than the previous vintage. Crisp for sure, no matter the generosity, weight and size. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted October 2023

Castello di Querceto Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Le Corte 2018, Greve

Le Corte is the original vineyard planted by the Alessandro François’ father in 1899, replanted in the early 1970s which makes them now approximately 55 years-old. The vintage was challenging and at the end of September the heat spike in Dudda (and other parts of the territory) was not only tempered by low nighttime temperatures but also the Mistral wind that blows through. And so 2018 is a big if balanced Gran Selezione, dark of fruit, higher of alcohol and singing in a baritone voice. Guts and glory. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted October 2023

Castello di Querceto Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Il Picchio 2020, Greve

One of two Castello di Querceto 2020s in Gran Selezione form by way of the single vineyard located in Greve’s Dudda Valley. The less luxe of the two and as such it’s also the more savoury and resinous one. In that sense rustic and grippier as well. These are austere and forceful tannins plus there is more variegated acidity. Fruit is not the king in Il Picchio, incidentally “the woodpecker” though that moniker tells us nothing about the wine. Certainly not a Gran Selezione to have a good laugh at. Very serious stuff, stern and a bit grumpy. Drink 2025-2031. Tasted October 2023

Castello di Querceto Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Il Picchio 2019, Greve

Like 2018 there is a darkness and depth of fruit from the gift of 2019 but what’s missing, as expected, is the resinous and essential herbal oil character. The balsamic is lessened and the five percent colorino shakes up the sangiovese to bring hue but also a change of fruit. Heart is still worn on the family sleeve and so Il Picchio delivers the history, passion, crest and culture of the family François. The richness of this vineyard’s clay really translates in terms of fruit, unction and structure. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted October 2023

Castello di Querceto Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Il Picchio 2018, Greve

As with Le Corte 2018 there is size and weight to Il Picchio though coming from the small vineyard surrounded by forest this breathes of plants and herbs, in greens and oils. Much more vegetative scents and some resinous character as well. Higher tonality, balsamic that Le Corte never has and likely not to be found in 2019 Il Picchio though that remains to be seen. Dark fruit, intensity and length. Plenty of length. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2023

Castello di Verrazzano – Greve

Castello di Verrazzano Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Greve

Oh, ah, the perfume of Verrazzano. Not just aromas from a wine producing estate but the complex aromatic weave of a veritable and traditional fattoria, of olive trees, gardens and forest. Not an Annata of structural potency but more so one of evident spezzatura, of superior phenolics and balance. The first half of the wine is sapid, the second turns and finishes salty. In that sense indicative of bordering Montefioralle and yet the mix of strong red fruit plus savour is purely Verrazzano. Returns full circle to strength of perfume. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted February and May 2023

Canadian Sommeliers at Verrazzano

Castello di Verrazzano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Sassello 2017 , Greve

Sassello comes from the vineyard on the hill behind the Borgo at the highest elevation and while ripeness development will be slower there can be no doubt that 2017 was better here than most warmer and lower locations in Chianti Classico. The Sassello of this vintage is still stuck in first stage youth, quiet, dense and volumetric. The wine has moved but barely an inch, it speaks in fulsome texture and while yet to flesh out there is a roundness that will see it drink so well for years to come. The best of which will be two looking ahead and ten after that. Drink 2025-2035. Tasted February and May 2023

Castello di Verrazzano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Valdonica 2017 , Greve

Valdonica is both lighter and more linear as compared to Sassello with more classic speazztura and Verrazzano aromatics. Also a chalkiness and barrel induced texture but without the volume in Sassello. Valdonica is more straightforward, not as intense in terms of substantial fruit and also more available at this early stage. Saltier finish as well, more in line with Annata while Sassello seems akin to Riserva. Notable balsamico in Valdonica. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted February and May 2023

Gioia, Sara and Filippo Cresti

Fattoria Carpineta Fontalpino

Fattoria Carpineta Fontalpino Chianti Classico DOCG Fontalpino 2021, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Indelibly stamped Carpineta style while so very fresh for 2021, truly bright of great breaths of Castelnuovo Berardenga air. Aged in tonneaux after cement fermentation and to say this was judged with fine precision would be paying close attention to Gioia Crest’s acumen and always consistent deft touch. Spot on for 2021 in so many respects. Last tasted October 2023

Wow the energy from 2021 Carpineta Fontalpino is off the charts, ergo there is this wide open sensation from Castelnuovo Berardenga that will not be denied. Fruit swells and impresses with its gingered-crimson beauty and the advances of egress by structural demand. While too youthful and awkward for all parts to hook up they will, in time, for all the right reasons and with zero regret. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted February 2023

Fattoria Carpineta Fontalpino Chianti Classico DOCG Fontalpino 2020, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Starting to open with aromatic presence after a slow first year like so many 2020s and here yet another territorial example that should surely live longer than expectation might have predicted. Layered red fruit that unfolds, even further upon the palate. Fine work in blending estate, Dofana and Montaperto fruit from a producer so specialized in their cru investigations. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted October 2023

Fattoria Carpineta Fontalpino Chianti Classico DOCG Dofana 2019, Castelnuovo Berardenga

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

Fattoria Carpineta Fontalpino Chianti Classico DOCG Dofana 2018, Castelnuovo Berardenga

The first thing that needs to mentioned and also discussed is place, that being the clay and Alberese, 300-plus meters of elevation and uniqueness, even for the place within the place. There is a sanguine character plus blood orange and liquorice, some dried herbs and just a touch of balsamic. Truly complex sangiovese from this cru, now entering into its ideal drinking time. Last tasted October 2023

Carpineta Fontalpino is located in Castelnuovo Berardenga but their Dofana cru is a matter of Vagliagli, sibling UGA within the two-winged commune. Vigna Dofana, special place for the Cresti family, deliverer of Vagliagli as only this place can within the most complex and also yet fully understood UGA. Dofana now graduated or better said migrated to Gran Selezione as a subtle, shadowy sangiovese, like chiaroscuro where fruit and acid are light and also dark, yet with time one will become the other. The constant is Dofana and yet now the label speaks in territorial terms, appellative as Gran Selezione, something new and accepted by Cresti siblings Gioia and Filippo. Benvenuto ragazzi. We look forward to discussing this 10-15 years down the road. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted February 2023

Fattoria Carpineta Fontalpino Chianti Classico DOCG Montaperto 2019, Castelnuovo Berardenga

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 Montaperto layering of many red fruits are the crux of the perfumes and freshness out of ’19, they being pomegranate, currant and plum, juices running and so many layers to peel away. Focused vintage and “we love it,” adds Gioia. Return in a year and see just where it looks like this will go. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted October 2023

Fattoria Carpineta Fontalpino Chianti Classico DOCG Montaperto 2018, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Montaperto cru is located in the western wing of the butterfly that is now considered Vagliagli though Gioia Cresti still likes to thinks in Castelnuovo Berardenga terms. And as such the labels starting in 2020 will say Castelnuovo. Montaperto currently exists in a truly fine moment, not frozen but suspended in a state of its earliest and most exciting drinking window. A wine that shows what kind of winemaking and wine style is cool again; effusive, elegant and inviting. So drinkable! Last tasted October 2023

Apposite to Dofana for Vagliagli is Montaperto of Castelnuovo Berardenga, the grippy, forceful and tannic one. The immovable and unbreakable sangiovese so very linear, gripped by strength, of skeletal structure and needing time. Give it. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted February 2023

Matteo Vaccari and Maddalena Fucile – Cigliano di Sopra

Fattoria Cigliano Di Sopra – San Casciano

Fattoria Cigliano Di Sopra Chianti Classico DOCG 2022, San Casciano

For Maddalena Fucile and Matteo Vaccari the hope is to increase to a maximum of 12 hectares and 35,000 bottles. “This is our dimension,” tells Matteo. And drinking others’ wines is key because if you don’t know what you like then you don’t know how to get where you want to go. The 2022 Annata was just bottled six-plus weeks ago, on August 31st and so this potential hinderance is kept in mind. The first vintage for which a portion was aged in the used Stockinger cask and some more stem (whole bunch) usage moved from (normally 20ish) up to 50-60 percent. You can sense the energy and increased power but still there is a transparency and a purity of red fruit that will not be denied. Comparisons are futile but those who seek out this style in cru Barbaresco or Côtes de Nuits Premier Cru will latch on here, likely to never let go. Next level for Fucile and Vaccari. Don’t care how young this wine happens to be – the potential can’t be ignored. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted October 2023

Fattoria Cigliano Di Sopra Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, San Casciano

Settling in or better said, maturing and gaining confidence with every small step forward. So much of what the result happens to be in this ’21 is a matter of ideas and experiments that transpired between 2017 and this harvest. The ideals have evolved and subsequent vintages will not just reveal experience but evolution of technique and execution. Crispy still and juicy acidity but showing some dried notes and perhaps in temporary a downturn phase. Last tasted October 2023

The use of 20-30 percent whole cluster tops up the open top fermenters, 15-20 days of fermentation and put to large old casks. Then 18 months, malo in the barrels and finally bottled in December. That perfect little lift of volatility so close to the edge without going over is just so enticing and delicious. A sangiovese of temptation and beauty, crunch and sweet savour. So much umami with thanks to those whole clusters that do their yeoman character building from old vines. Brilliant sangiovese. Truly. Tasted May 2023

Behold yet another precocious and shockingly generous Annata from the team of Matteo and Maddalena at Cigliano di Sopra. That and an intensity of things intangible despite the very tangible, credible and knowable parts of this wine. So very singular and stand alone for San Casciano and yet a style but more so a way of being that just feels like the future. Too young to really know but it seems like this duo has learned how to keep their ferments from flying away and also from getting away. The professionals are in the house. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted February 2023

Cigliano di Sopra Chianti Classico DOCG Vigneto Branca 2021, San Casciano

A single vineyard, 100 percent whole bunch macerated best parcel (of massal selection planted in 1972) sangiovese that is the first true experiment in the young winemaking lives of Maddalena Fucile and Matteo Vaccari. Reminds of the Annata in that transparency, purity and focus are all there but imagine more power, grip and intensified, implosive tannins. And yet, and yet the push here is just a bit overarching because a minor note of green austerity does arrive, however fleeting it may be. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted October 2023

Robin Mugnaini of Le Masse

Fattoria Le Masse – San Donato in Poggio

Fattoria Le Masse Chianti Classico DOCG 2022, San Donato in Poggio

(Tank Sample) The first vintage that sees 70 percent new (5000L) concrete for aging to go along with the (30) in wood. Pure concrete, not lined, no resin. Once again 20 percent whole bunch and 60 days skin maceration. This is not a truly finished wine but a sample drawn to see progression. Some volatility and reduction still so come back in a year. Tons of stuffing and clearly on to something important because of the concrete use – not just freshness but succulence. The tannins are quite fine. The potential is great. Tasted October 2023

Fattoria Le Masse Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, San Donato in Poggio

“So far 2021 is the one that gives me more pleasure, with more complexity and density, even more than 2021.” Now well into his tenure and so Robin Mugnaini has a pretty keen sense of where he’s at with respect to Chianti Classico. Still 20 percent whole bunch and two moths on skins, to be released in a year and a half. Really clean, fruit at the top of this San Donato in Poggio game and purity as verity. These are powdery tannins trying to liquify and integrate but it really is just a kid. Richer than any that have come before and of a structure that will see this travel for a few years. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2023

Fattoria Le Masse Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, San Donato in Poggio

The wildest of the three straight vintages of Le Masse’s Chianti Classico is this 2020, reductive and with just a hint of Brettanomyces on the palate. The fruit blooms greater and so at present the balance is easily struck though it remains to be seen how the knots will be untied and what will come next. Aromatic and Robin Mugnaini feels the problematic notes were worse six months ago and so the future might just be pure and sound. There is a gritty quality which might suggest otherwise but fear not because quality fruit and thoughtfulness will conspire for promise, just not so deep into the future. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted October 2023

Fattoria Le Masse Chianti Classico DOCG 2019, San Donato in Poggio

Take the varietal sangiovese from 2018 and double the gift of fruit for a wine that saw two years in bottle after 30-35 percent aging in wood. More muscle and sweet structure out of 2019 by the combination of acids and tannins that can’t help but double down together. This is Chianti Classico that will make you smile and for so many reasons; organics, biodynamics, indigenous yeasts, limited sulphites and most importantly grace, purity, charm and beauty. True blue San Donato in Poggio blood orange, iron rich soil minerals, elements and ultimately a sensation gained that comes from this northwestern Chianti Classico terroir. Last tasted October 2023

Pure and ready, amenable and readable Annata here from Le Masse’s San Donato in Poggio vines, treated with utmost respect and for all the right reasons. This is textural sangiovese and quantities are so low you should count yourself lucky to secure just a bottle or two. Grace, understatement and charm are what this feels like are the things that comprise its beauty. Tasted February 2023

“To me, one of the best years for grapes,” tells winemaker Claudio Gozzi and the wood tank used for fermentation and now aging makes this noticeably a year wiser (than 2018) and so much more suitable to making this 100 per cent sangiovese. Even without tasting you can tell there’s a refinement, a calm and a settling that 2018 does not have. Cleaner, much more precision and seamless behaviour. Perfect volatility, sweet acidity and long, fine chains of tannin. Pure and honest, exacting, readier and will be just ideal with another year or so of time. Approximately 7,500 bottles produced. Drink 2022-2028. Tasted October 2021

Fattoria Le Masse Chianti Classico DOCG 2018, San Donato in Poggio

The 2018 was the current release – until very recently. This was the last iteration of the old style or perhaps the transition to what Robin Mugnaini is trying to accomplish now. Fermentation in large wood vats, a month and a half on the skins, just sangiovese. Sent to 30-35 percent wood and the rest in tank. Lovely sweet perfume, fine silken texture and just that micro amount of swarthiness. Comes from soils of sand, clay and round river stones of an alluvial origin. Some iron in the soil particles, up in Marrocco near Sambuca. One of the only places with a view to much of Classico, including Badia a Passignano, Tignanello, San Donato in Poggio and Panzano. Three passes in the vineyard make for a layering that results in fine tannins and beauty. Charming Chianti Classico in every respect with a long, rewarding finish. Last tasted October 2023

First vintage with new (large format) wood and it shows on the nose, from the vineyards in Morrocco, a land totally different from Le Masse’s estate lands. Not exactly like the Classico soils of Galestro and Alberese but still rocky, hard soil that drains easily and very different than Chianti nearby. Solo sangiovese, land directed, soil funky, fresh and vital. Partially fermented in wood tanks, a touch Bretty and notable tannic. Needs to and will settle in nicely. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted October 2021

Le donne di Pomona

Fattoria Pomona – Castellina

Fattoria Pomona Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Castellina

Monica Raspi’s acumen and comfort level have acceded the exceptional because she is passionate about making top echelon sangiovese as much as any winemaker, self-taught or not in Chianti Classico. The 2021 includes just five percent colorino, took 10 days to ferment and remained on its skins for somewhere between three and four weeks. This is a significant number, more prevalent in the region than it was just a few years ago and when managed right will transform Chianti Classico into sangiovese of the ethereal. A substantial, silken and seductive ’21 here from Pomona with its mix of sweet acidity and Castellina liqueur. The tannins are liquid Alberese chalky from a linear wine moving upwards and forwards in stride. This has the length and the balsamico specific to Pomona. A top body of Annata work from Raspi and just the sort of style to pass on to the next generation; Cosimo and Costanza. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2023

Fattoria Pomona Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Vigna Pomona L’Uomino 2020, Castellina

The artist formerly known as Bandini is not a Riserva of selection but one made from all the grapes picked out of the single Vigna Pomona. The fantasy name “L’Uomini” neither denotes uomo della strada nor uomo d’affari but definitely uomo d’onore and uomo alla mano because this Riserva cares. The vines would have been 23 years of age for this vintage and the resulting wine is spicier than the Annata, but also exhibits an exaggeration of the local balsamico. A kind of resin in there, a natural cure, savoury and like incense some might say. It is the strident and taut character that defines what’s really going on though this shall pass. Yet another example of just how well 2020s communicate and explain their potential. Slow development ahead and in the end will be a vintage held in great esteem. L’Uomini is not a man of the street or just about business. He is friendly and wears a badge of honour. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted October 2023

Fattoria Pomona Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Bandini 2016, Castellina

“Not my best, but it’s perfect,” tells Monica Raspi. But it may just be the most elegant of all the Pomona sangiovese. In a great place now with the balsamico and the respect to the vineyard. Last tasted October 2023

Purity of handsome fruit lingers left, right and centre within a commission of structural components designed by nature on the road past Villa Pomona up through Castellina in Chianti. The vintage is a rich and elastic one for Monica Raspi and one she must have just delighted in simply being a part of. Elegance as the opposite of vice. Reaches all the essential peaks, plateaus and precipices where supple fruit settles and rests. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted February 2019

Fattoria Pomona Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2021, Castellina Campione (Sample)

The 2021 will be a Gran Selezione and Castellina will be written on the label. As it stands this early in its tenure the future GS acts out a hyperbole of everything that is Pomona. The DNA of the top vineyard and family resemblances to L’Uomini and also Classico. Not just an uncanny look in a few mirrors but essential tenets to define these wines and keep them all in la famiglia. Tasted October 2023

Fattoria Rignana

Fattoria Rignana Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Panzano

Just a small amount of April frost damage happened in the lower part of the vineyards near the Pesa River but the rest of the higher reaches were unscathed and so quantity out of ’21 was fine, while quality ran high. Just stainless and concrete (no wood) for a truly fresh and sustainable Annata. The 15 percent canaiolo adds a dimension of sapidity as balance to what sensations high acid and saline sangiovese are want to deliver. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted October 2023

Fattoria Rignana Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2020, Panzano

Led by sangiovese with 15 percent cabernet franc, mainly chosen in the vineyard because explains Cosimo Gericke, “over the years I know the vineyard and which ones produce the best sangiovese.” Spends two years in small and also large wood (Slavonian botti) but the barriques are being phased out in these years. Dark fruit, rich, deep and yes it’s a woody example of Riserva but it’s suave, mature, experienced and so very real within this kind of style. Full and substantial wine with really soft and fine tannins. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted October 2023

Fattoria Rignana Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Villa Rignana 2020, Panzano

Gran Selezione is 100 percent sangiovese, just bottled in June of 2023. First vintage was 2013 and this 2020 is the first to see Panzano gracing the label under the new rules of the UGA. Similar elévage to the Riserva with all small barrels from a 2003 planted vineyard packed with lots of clay, Alberese lower down and Galestro at the top. Floral example, a bit of acetone, some wood scents of vanilla and coconut and finally balsamico. High acid, sharp, quite tannic and needing a few years to settle in. Will be a much better wine once the integration occurs. Drink 2025-2031. Tasted October 2023

Giovanni Poggiali – Fèlsina

Fèlsina Berardenga – Castelnuovo Berardenga

Fèlsina Berardenga Chianti Classico DOCG Berardenga 2021, Castelnuovo Berardenga

The full-on Fèlsina aromatics are beginning their ascent, of brushy savour and spicy red fruits together expressive with leaps from the glass. Still a tight vintage no matter the generosity and yet Castelnuovo Berardenga sangiovese is the heart of the matter. Traces a line from 2019 to 2020 and then here for a vintage trilogy so clearly Fèlsina. Last tasted October 2023

Firm yet fair Annata from Fèlsina and one off the harbingers not only for Castelnuovo Berardenga but surely Chianti Classico as a whole. The 2021s are a formidable group, like 2019 Barolo in certain structural and yet immovable respect. Though this entry is but an indicator, instigator and liquidator it does so with all possibilities and probabilities intact. Classic Fèlsina of a broad spectrum to speak on behalf of a wide breadth of fruit sourced out their many vineyard blocks. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted February 2023

Fèlsina Berardenga Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2020, Castelnuovo Berardenga

When 2018 was tasted the suggestion was not to sleep on that vintage and while ’19 and ’21 may be heaped with greater praises, well do not sleep on 2020 either. One of the warmest on record at Fèlsina and most of Castelnuovo Berardenga but better water reserves and lower late season nighttime temps fully separate the vintage from 2017. Words like concentrated and substantial are key and offer up a keen sense of what kind of Riserva this is and will later become. There is wisdom and maturity here but also an unknown element, in other words possibility. That’s because CCR ’20 is a sangiovese of great acidity – important acids that buoy the fruit, stabilize its trajectory, set it upon the crests of waves that will see it fluidly travel well through to middle age. Truly well made and proper Riserva. Drink 2023-2029. Tasted October 2023

Fèlsina Berardenga Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Rancia 2019, Castelnuovo Berardenga

No let up in that excitative exuberance of herbal savour that can only Rancia. Five months since the last visit and this top Fèlsina Riserva remains immovable, unchallenged and in no hurry to change. Don’t ask it to. Last tasted October 2023

Aromatically plush if less agitative and herbal than what showed 14 months prior though there is no denying the resins and bramble have yet to relent. The fruit waits, still in side the fortress but we know there is more than enough to peak for 10 years. Revisit in the spring of 2024. Nosing some vermouth today in wildly botanical and delectably aromatic style. Tasted May 2023

A bright, lightning red fruit and herbal oil Rancia Riserva here in ’19, working through pine and cedar, rosemary, sage and elderberry, fennel too. All the resins are here in their youth, circulating and formulating an exit strategy. At this point the fruit, sweet as it is, is wrapped up in the bramble, impossible to reach without getting bitten by the thorny tannins of this wine. Just wait, and wait some more because there is so much happening and still to come. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted March 2022

Fèlsina Berardenga Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Rancia 2005, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Fèlsina’s first vinatge was 1967 with a label that exulted the name “Berardenga” in big letters, 54 years ahead of what would finally become the new UGA. “The land of light” is Fèlsina and no hill and its block of vines defines this place within Castelnuovo Berardenga more than that of Rancia. Takes its name from the house; a very dry place, markedly Mediterranean and thus every vintage of this Riserva scents of brush, mountain tea, garrigue, herbs and botanicals. Trust when it is said that no other Chianti Classico smells like Rancia and 2005 is an extreme example of that admonition. The ’05 is persistent in its reek, of fruit off of vines that transfer these aromas of wild fennel, sage, rosemary, marjoram, mint and other unnamed horticultural growth. It’s uncanny and with secondary umami elements now in full force the result is a sangiovese as complex as any from the territory for the last 20 years. Wild sauvage of flora captured and encapsulating a pinpointed territorial place. Drink 2023-2028. Tasted October 2023

Pagliarese Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2019, Castelnovo Berardenga

Likely the first Gran Selezione from the Pagliarese estate made by Fèlsina in the southeastern half of Castelnuovo Berardenga. A sharp and pointed example of the area with much in common shared with the Fèlsina sangiovese. Herbal and resinous to make you feel, smell, sense and inhale the land with as much local spirit as any. Not the most grippy example of GS but well-powered to drink well as soon as you wish and for three to five further seasons. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted October 2023

Fèlsina Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Colonia 2019, Castelnuovo Berardenga

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

Fèlsina Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Colonia 2009, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Colonia Vineyard is a short jog up the hill past Rancia and through the woods. In 1966 Domenico Poggiali found a cellar set into the “tufa” hills of his Fèlsina estate. It was small, built of stone and with a wide brick vault. It was a start. In 1967 he chose to plant Colonia in an impossibly challenging and extreme Alberese limestone rocky location. He used dynamite because that was the thing at the time but it was soon outlawed and made clearing the land near impossible. Twenty-four years later Giovanni Poggiali resumed the project and planted its first vines in 1993, just before Domenico passed away. Colonia 2009 is La Prima, the first Gran Selezione and this look back is one to recall roots (tethered to 2006), familial traditions and passing of the Chianti Classico torch. This vintage separates and leaves its original designations in the rear-view mirror. At 14 years of age it remains austere but austere can be beautiful. As here, with severe and chiseled features though the savoury elements differ from Rancia. More resinous evergreen and forested aromas but also a chalkiness that speaks directly out of the Alberese. The thing is Colonia remains still young and fresh, while the powdered mineral persists unresolved. One of the most fascinating retrospective looks at aged Chianti Classico. Drink 2023-2036. Tasted October 2023

Giovanni and Bernardo Manetti – Fontodi

Fontodi – Panzano

Fontodi Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Panzano

Like the Filetta di Lamole, the Panzano Classico was also bottled quite recently and is to be released in the Spring of 2024. A full on expression of the Classico for Fontodi from a vintage of everything; substantial fruit, quality and quantity, acidity at peak, generosity and potential. What more does there need to be? About as full and classic as it gets for this stalwart and even just that wee bit of Panzano swarthiness that give these sangiovese their intrinsic and inherent character. Caught with spot on simplicity and poise. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted October 2023

Fontodi Chianti Classico DOCG 2021 Dino 2021, Panzano

The Chianti Classico that sees amphora, stainless steel and also French wood – but no Slavonian oak. The outlier and if it needs be said, the experimental Annata. That said it has evolved from its IGT (Toscana Centrale) origins and the soils are Pietraforte in this specific micro-climate (a cooler one) from which finer and dustier tannins come away. More about texture in Dino but this is also a bit of a crooner expressive of songs sung from its valley origins. Not a frost zone because it buds later and at harvest time there is the diurnal fluctuation from 30 degrees by day to 10 at night. Great but different acidity from Dino, sweeter but also a balsamic aspect. Unique Classico in every respect. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted October 2023

Fontodi Chianti Classico DOCG Filetta di Lamole 2021, Lamole

Pure macigno (sandstone) terroir on terraces fully surrounded by woods and what is most essential in Filetta is the perfume that just has to come from Lamole. From 2021 a most proficient and promising one, an effortless exhale and a seamless transition to mimicry upon the palate. Well structured, so subtly chalky and a succulence meeting exuberance that is as much vintage as it is place. Freshness meeting concentration at the highest level. A complete vintage, needing not be compared to any other. We’ll think in these kinds of terms seven to 10 years down the road. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted October 2023

Giovanni Manetti – Fontodi

Fontodi Chianti Classico DOCG 2021 Pastrolo, Lamole

The newest (along with San Leolino) of Fontodi’s Chianti Classico, from Lamole and a vineyard with unique geology, that being Macigno di Marne, a.k.a marine sandstone. Youthful and the oak flavours still act as a flannel blanket over the fruit but insists Giovanni Manetti, “it remains a question of time.” Second vintage of this label and destined to be a Gran Selezione when time, commissioned grants and the realization of a plan all come together in collective fruition. Average planting was back in the late 1970s with newer plantations going in. There were some mixed varieties, including canaiolo, trebbiano, malvasia and colorino. Meanwhile this is sangiovese, grippy, firm, austere and as they say, molto profumato. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted October 2023

Fontodi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigna del Sorbo 2020, Panzano

Three parcels, two planted between 1965 and 1971 plus 1973, coming together because the uniqueness of these three plots are the schist soils that manifest above ground as Galestro. All about spiciness and mid-palate volume. The sorbo is a local fruit, specific to Tuscany, very dry and tannic, much like grapes. And hello to the Chianti Classico UGA within Greve commune because this is the first label to say Panzano, 40 years in the making and finally the mention is here. Structure is serious from a reduced crop yield due to frost in April and this is what Giovanni Manetti had to say at the time. “We had a couple of days very cold, April 6th and 7th but the damages are limited to the young vines. The majority of the buds of the other vines were still closed and were not hurt by the frost. In the rest of the CC territory there were some damages in the warmer areas and zero in the cooler ones like Radda and Lamole. The frost in 2017 was much more worse than this.” A linear Vigna del Sorbo this 2020, taut, extremely young and with a great potential. Drink 2026-2037. Tasted October 2023

Fontodi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigna del Sorbo 2019, Panzano

Openly aromatic and immediately generous Vigna del Sorbo from a vintage that it could not be helped but to acquiesce and create such a giving example of Gran Selezione. But do not be fooled because the tannic structure is equally generous though more importantly layered to a point that each month for the next 144 will reveal another aspect of what this sangiovese has surely been finessed to become. Will stand out in vertical, mixed sangiovese and multifarious high level wine tastings because it will always show with perfume, concentration and architectural lines. Profound Vigna del Sorbo from the ‘19 vintage. Drink 2025-2038. Tasted October 2023

Fontodi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigna del Sorbo 1988, Panzano

Deep colour and only bricking slightly at the rim but aromatics are truly mature, of soy, balsamic, resins and mushroom broth. That said there is great brightness with wonderful acidity and this blood orange meets caramelized or confit vegetables (like carrot and fennel) that give this a slow braised and purely plant-based feeling. So very cool to taste because the nose is not as inviting as we might have wished. Great energy and with some cabernet (10 percent) there is a just a wisp of Cassis but Panzano is clearly the origin. Perhaps not as fully evident as a similarly aged Flaccianello but you can’t take the place out of the Chianti Classico. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted October 2023

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

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

Fontodi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Terrazze San Leolino 2019, Panzano

Truth be told just four and a half months have brought the new GS into fine illuminated light and though there is so much time ahead there is little doubt that partaking now would not a mistake. Sweetness of the holy trinity, they being fruit, acidity and tannin. They are all natural, lifted and in synch. Last tasted October 2023

From Fontodi’s newest vineyard having now come into production, in and around the church of San Leonino on the east side of the Conca d’Oro and below the village of Panzano. Some maturity in this 2019 and a delicate if also suave type of (100 percent) sangiovese. The scents of liquorice and fennel, a dusty moment and just the right amount of differentiating scorrevole, always a trademark of a Manetti sangiovese, sliding with grace and ease across the palate. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted May 2023

Canadian Sommeliers at Gagliole

Gagliole – Panzano

Gagliole Chianti Classico DOCG Rubiolo 2021, Panzano

Three terroir collection of Gagliole’s youngest vineyards across their estates, a macro of balancing related to soils built on Alberese, Pietraforte and Galestro. Brings all elements to the table; phenols, dusty savour and a mix of Classico acidities. In this vintage the pick was relatively late (especially in Panzano), as late as October 21 and 22. A management of vineyards leads to a capture of freshness so essential for the Annata level of Chianti Classico. Gagliole gets it in the most croccante way. Last tasted May 2023

Rubiolo is 100 per cent sangiovese and Panzano fruit from 400-plus meters of elevation above and to the west side of the Conca d’Oro. Expressive of the two factions of Panzano character, texture and savour. Silky smooth liquidity and more accessible than what might have been pre-conceived though there is surely no lack of grip emanating through the cool ooze of this wine. Really quite fine. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted February 2023

Gagliole Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2020, Panzano

Round acidity is the idea, to deliver true Riserva style and frankly not as a competition with either Rubiolo (Annata) or Pecchia (Gran Selezione). Quite a mouthful of 2020 fruit, truly circulative acidity and the kind of Panzano sangiovese that asks for consumption because it promises near immediate gratification, without strings or too much grip to prevent that kind of early enjoyment. Last tasted May 2023

Fulsome and chewy Riserva for Gagliole with 100 percent Panzano sangiovese part beautiful and part structured, by Galestro and Pietraforte soils. This fruit comes from the heart and epicentre of Chianti Classico Pietraforte with a warm 2020 delivering waves of fruit and mineral, alternating, integrating and soon to be evolving. This 2020 feels like a Riserva quite close to reaching its peak, likely in two years but the wealth of fruit means the door will open sooner rather than later. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted February 2023

Gagliole Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Pecchia 2018, Panzano

Pecchia from only Pietraforte Panzano soils was IGT through the 2016 vintage, skipped in 2017 and brought into the Chianti Classico DOCG appellation in 2018 with the estates first Gran Selezione. Less transparency but clearly more polish and luxe disposition than Gallùle but what this expresses are hearty matters of spotless and seamless perfection. Structurally speaking the Pietraforte puts this sangiovese in a most precise place to establish a top position in every respect. Just 3,000 bottles produced and though there was great heat at the launch of harvest there were also low nighttime temps and all the acidity was preserved. Great graphite style and cool as an October Panzano night. Really special wine. Drink 2026-2035. Tasted May 2023

Godello and Iacopo Morganti – Il Molino di Grace

Il Molino di Grace

Il Molino di Grace Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2021, Panzano

Campione (Sample): Riserva is high quality in 2021 though lessened in quantity thanks to an angry April frost around Easter time. Nothing much has changed in that Riserva takes the best fruit from special vineyards including that of Al Bosco. Very youthful so bottling in November or December may by necessary but there is tension, a twitchiness and an aggressive personality that speaks to top level structure. This will age very well. Smaller production of 18,000 bottles. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted October 2023

Il Molino di Grace Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2021, Panzano

Campione (Sample): 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 2026-2034. Tasted October 2023

Il Molino di Grace

Il Molino di Grace Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Panzano

A low (450 quintale or 45,000 kg) production vintage due to April frosts though the quality was very high. Is 2021 the best I ask Iacopo Morganti.“Every time the last one has to be the best one…though 2021 is like 2001. Similar vintage, weather included but there was more production from 2001.” The style is similar, also colour of fruit, elegance, light and ethereal with purposed acidity. “In 2020 the fruit was darker, you feel more oak,” he adds. These ‘21s are typical wines as and for sangiovese. Pure, light and so elegant, bottled on the 21st of September. Hard to find a more amenably front-ended Chianti Classico but the tannins are still somewhat aggressive. Not Riserva in that sense because there is less flesh and body. Still this is a discreetly charming 2021 and a great wine to drink, whenever you feel ready. Aging will be somewhere between six and nine years, give or take and depending on the situation. Drink 2024-2031. Tasted October 2023

Il Molino di Grace Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2020, Panzano

Eight months later and Iacopo Morganti exclaims “Molto Buono!” The wood has not fully integrated, nor was that expected but now the aggressive aspects are relenting and the fruit-acid relationship is developing into the extraordinary. Another eight months and this will enter the “zone.” Last tasted October 2023

In line with the Classico yet with better quality material chosen there is higher acidity and that matters greatly. Tannins are finer as well, yet that same darkness of pitchy and perfumed fruit is consistent with tighter and stronger grip. Must be granted another year in bottle to settle the strongholds and the score. The barrel has much to say right how, noted in grains running through the veins of the sangiovese. Older vines including Al Bosco are Riserva bound. The linger and length on this is infinite, at least in Riserva terms. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted February 2023

Il Molino di Grace Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Il Margone 2020, Panzano

The vineyard that gives the best quality is Magdalena Vineyard planted around 2010, both for 2020 and what’s to come in 2021. When you have less production it’s easier to separate the wheat from the chaff and so the lots fermented separately are easier to identify. This 2020 proposes an extreme set of tannic proportions but sweet fruit with heft, weight and flesh is up to the task. Last tasted October 2023

Fine tannic presence from Gran Selezione for 2020, several steps up from Riserva with less pitch and grab but still overt dark fruit. More diversity and complexity in perfume, notable violets and rose but really what stands out here is how the tannins allow the fruit to stay up front. There are no perceived grains or sand-papery textures involved, neither is Il Margone soft or fluffy. There may only be 8,000 or so bottles available at this quality and so a rare and must have wine it most certainly will be. Iacopo Morganti explains it well. “It’s not easy too make three different levels of Chianti Classico. You need to understand the vintage and the differences, especially when you have less quantity.” Drink 2025-2032. Tasted February 2023

With Angela Fronti

Istine – Radda

Istine Chianti Classico DOCG 2021

The 2021 was taken to market last March though bottled a few times over four months. Crunchy Chianti Classico from Istine because the vintage says so with mostly (80 percent) coming off of Radda parcels – so it’s nearly a village wine, with 20 percent fruit out of Gaiole (lower part of Cavarchione plus Le Noci and Tibuca). High level freshness and what some like to describe as crispy, so typical of an Istine sangiovese. Sees a year in large format Austrian wood for 50,000 bottles produced. Last tasted October 2023

Angela Fronti’s Annata is an expression of several vineyards, where rocks are such an important matter, in soils of Galestro plus Alberese, but also elevation and slope. The Classico’s grapes come mostly from Radda vineyards (Istine and Casanova dell’Aia) but also Gaiole (Cavarchione, Tibuca and Le Noci). Though a child of cool, calculated and mysterious ’21 there is quite a rouse of joy and untamed energy coming straight out of this pure sangiovese. Fronti has done well to coax pleasure with little tension or pain and as such you could very much have a glass as soon as you wish. Barrel sample or not and so when it does find its wine into bottle this 2021 will drink well from the start. Tasted February 2023

Istine Chianti Classico DOCG Vigna Istine 2020, Radda

“For me this a project to show the territory,” explains Angela Fronti and each Istine micro-parcel does indeed show it’s particular place. An impressively paced sangiovese as a child of a submerged cap, not Piedmontese style per se, 30 days instead of 45-60 but the gist is there. Perhaps the single site Chianti Classico of the most transparency and purity but also lighting red fruit because of the Alberese, elevation at 550m and extreme slope. Intensity is off the charts, acidity also an electric strike and tannins in charge as a blast upon all other parts of the wine. 3,500 bottles produced. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted October 2023

Istine Chianti Classico DOCG Vigna Casanova dell’Aia 2020, Radda

Off of limestone and clay at 500m on the other side of Radda from Istine and this particular cru delivers more unction, herbals and gritty tannins than those from Radda. Richer and more density with a layer of tannins and quite an impressive depth. 3,500 bottles produced. Last tasted October 2023

One of three single vineyard Chianti Classico made by Angela Fronti (and one of two in Radda, the other being Istine) with this being the younger vineyard and a really transparent example of Radda. Fresh and up front strength, less intense than Istine without the Alberese structure and a very linear, upright and direct example. Of high acid Radda. Chalky tannins are fine-grained and needing time to integrate. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted May 2023

Istine Chianti Classico DOCG Cavarchione 2020, Gaiole

A bit less elevation (at 420m) to Istine with similar soils if a bit more outrcropppings of Galestro. Frankly this shares more affinity in style with Istine as a Classico off of a single vineyard than the two Radda’s do so with each other. That said there is more depth to Cavarchione, more herbals and layers of both sweet yet fine acidities and tannins. It’s quite a brilliant expression and a pure one from this vineyard for 2020. 3,500 bottles produced. Drink 2025-2031. Tasted October 2023

Istine Chianti Classico DOCG Levigne 2020

“If you are able to you can taste each single vineyard in the wine,” insists Angela Fronti. “You can find them,” she says confidently, if also with a nurturing smile. Levigne combines Istine, Casanova dell’Aia and Cavarchione for a super cru cuvée and quite frankly this is the isosceles triangle of Chianti Classico because each side and angle are equal, opposite and connected to each other. Three layers of harmony and equilibrium without any one of taking charge, centre stage or control. 3,500 bottles produced. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted October 2023

Angela Fronti

Istine Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Istine 2021, Radda

(Sample) The three cru vineyards are all set to become Gran Selezione as of the 2021 vintage with the Istine Vineyard renamed as “Sistera” and Radda also named on the label. Impressively consistent with what has come before and though youth may cloud what possibility or better still the probability of this future, still you know this is Istine. The 2020 shows what will happen after just another six months and so where this will be next Spring is somewhere profound. Tasted October 2023

Istine Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Casanova dell’Aia 2021, Radda (Sample)

The three cru vineyards are all set to become Gran Selezione as of the 2021 vintage with this to be labeled Radda iteration a matter of the Casanova dell’Aia Vineyard. Is this full-bodied? Well yes but then again no, because of its purity, sense of place, finesse, precision and directivity. This passes all tests with flying colours. Extremely important and proper vintage for Radda and a true testament to Gran Selezione. Tasted October 2023

Istine Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Cavarchione 2021, Gaiole (Sample)

The three cru vineyards are all set to become Gran Selezione as of the 2021 vintage with this to be labeled Gaiole iteration a matter of the Cavarchione Vineyard. Riches but also lightning red fruit from Gaiole in 2021 with some of this vineyard’s finest acids ever cooked out of the cru surrounded by woods that breathe life into this sangiovese fruit. Length is about as impressive as any in the Istine pantheon of the last twenty years. Tasted October 2023

La Montanina – Gaiole

La Montanina Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Gaiole

The work of Bruno Mazzoni whose maternal grandfather was producing wine here in Gaiole in the 1970s. Mazzoni started tarted in 2006 wth a rebuilding of the cellar, first produced Chianti Classico in 2012, but waited a few years to begin selling the wines. His 2021 is a new and very youthful vintage made by winemaker Maurizio Longi for a Chianti Classico that shows off the true character and nature of Gaiole sangiovese. Tension and yet a transparency because it’s a bit lighter (than say 2019 or 2016) but the potential for aging here is great. Crunchy and crisp, a wine you can grip between the teeth and bite down, then finishing with piques of energy and spice. This is a fine wine of purpose. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted December 2023

La Montanina Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Gaiole

Still lifted, fresh and full-bodied though never dense or weighty. Last tasted in December 2023

“It depends on where you are,” explains the President of the Gaiole association, Manuele Verdelli. That rings so true for La Montanina because elevation and forest are both integral in creating the freshness and lift in this Annata. High spirited lift, more than many, even from Gaiole. For Classico this expresses high acidity and also tannin, somewhat drying and austere yet beginning now to integrate with the Amaro-black cherry-like liqueur. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted May 2023

La Montanina Chianti Classico DOCG 2019, Gaiole

New labels in 2019, more contemporary now and still the small amount of ciliegiolo mixed into the sangiovese. Freshness, tannins are fine-grained and there is some tension again, not too little and not too much. A just right 2019 that is befitting of the vintage and also Gaiole with herbs, breaths of fresh woods air and just that right amount of botti for structure and spice. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted December 2023

La Montanina Chianti Classico DOCG 2018, Gaiole

No bottling in 2017 with the production sold off to bulk because of the heat of the vintage and so this ’18 is the follow-up to what was a high energy and tension filled 2016. Some good energy here as well yet in two years this will act more like the soft and round 2015. Feel the wood more in this sangiovese (always inclusive of five percent ciliegiolo) and so there is a note of caramel, bokser pod fruit and it is at the end where the acidity is felt. Very warm vintage as well, late picked and ready to drink. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted December 2023

La Montanina Chianti Classico DOCG 2016, Gaiole

Similar to 2015 in that the Classico from this time is now rounded and at the later stages of its original character but straight away you note the tension and energy, even just from the aromatics. This is sangiovese, sharp and of a proper vintage acidity with grip and persistent intensity. Grabs a hold of the palate with several years to go before that attention will be softened. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted December 2023

La Montanina Chianti Classico DOCG 2015, Gaiole

Some fresh fruits persistence put this warm weather vintage in a good place eight years later. Soft and amenable, round, just now entering that secondary zone. Yet the fruit has not dried our or become leathery but the acidity is soft and sweet. Lovely glass of sangiovese with five percent ciliegiolo that previous to had already been in the vineyard mix. Drink 2023-2024. Tasted December 2023

La Montanina Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2020, Gaiole

A combination of frescezza and warmth with fruit that yes is fresh but there is both weight and tension to this Riserva. Truly appellative, very wisely and obviously Gaiole, rich and yet vertical, tight and still fleshy so that you have to see this as generous. Top drop for La Montanana between 2015 and 2020. Last tasted December 2023

My what a lovely Riserva! Fruit succulent and sweet and swirled so effortlessly into equally mouthwatering acidity of pitch perfect tone. Yes there is Gaiole savour and it’s presence is as a seasoning, with chef’s ability, emotion and touch. As for 2020 well this from La Montanina delves into passion and the aforementioned emozione as well and as much as any Riserva in the Classico area. Brava, Oretta Leonini. Grande Gaiole! Drink 2024-2032. Tasted February 2023

La Montanina Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2019, Gaiole

Bruno Mazzoni owned shoe shops in Siena, no more but also works with real estate. At La Montanina there is also a agriturismo. Oretta is the “queen of the agriturismo, Bruno is the king of the cellar.” Rosa is his partner. The winemaker is Maurizio Longi. The vintage is simply reserved for the best and so Riserva as the first of its kind is because owner Mazzoni wanted to see several years of quality fruit before making this next level wine. Yes the concentration is next level and yet the blend is the same, that being five percent ciliegiolo in with the sangiovese. Sees 18 months in tonneaux and the wood is noted but already integrating so that this as Riserva will drink at its peak no more than a year to 18 months from now. Lifted for sure and so acidity is high caste. Only 2,000 bottles are produced. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted December 2023

Luca, Veena and Valeria Orsini – Le Cinciole

Le Cinciole

Le Cinciole Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Panzano

Still the latest wine release because the 2021 will be bottled in January. The 2020 is still very youthful, lifted, high acid, tight and working toward its future. “I am satisfied enough for 2020″ tells Luca Orsini, “no particular problems, a normal season. A bit stronger than 2019.” Definitely more structure and very, very sangiovese. Last tasted December 2023

Le Cinciole Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Aluigi Campo Ai Peri 2019, Panzano

Spiced aromatics, biscotti to ginger cookies, an eastern Panzano original, fresh and dusky, like the Frazione’s evening air. Tight and focused sangiovese, even more so Panzano on the palate, lightly glycerol and just so perfectly tart. Though a two-plus year old Annata this is really just about as fresh as it gets. Elevation contributes to the ideal, at 450m and near to the wines from Casole. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted February 2023

Luigi was Valeria’s father who passed away in 2007, the same year that she and Luca planted their new vineyard. He was always very instrumental in their start between 1990 and 1991. The name of the vineyard is Campo ai Peri, the place “of two old pear trees.” The place was actually Graziella, the name of the old woman who lived in a house at that spot. Aluigi is in a great place today which speaks to the clay and position of the vineyard, the vintage for sure, longer time in bottle and so now it’s really just beautiful. Drink now and for seven to 10 more. Last tasted December 2023

At once lovely but also striking vintage for Le Cincole’s Gran Selezione, 100 percent sangiovese from eastern Panzano. A 2019 with sapidity, not rare but also not exactly common. Juicy, through daggers or pricks on the palate and then taken over by austerely drying tannins. Length is dramatic and most invigorating. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted May 2023

Podere La Cappella – San Donato in Poggio

Podere La Cappella Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, San Donato in Poggio

From vineyards approximately 20 years of age, aged in one or two year old bariques, An Annata in capture of place, full of red fruit and a singular kind of saltiness, Alberese mineral that is and from 2020 also tons of fruit, as much as any in San Donato in Poggio. This is what happens when a family heeds the vintage and makes what had to be made. Lasted May 2023

Graceful and charming sangiovese with smoothness and texture added poignancy by 10 per cent merlot puts this 2020 in great vintage standing. Yes it is so very San Donato in Poggio but it’s also Podere La Cappella in a nutshell. The Rossini wines always express and taste this way, like bleeds from white limestone and a ripeness befitting this place. Also freshness by winds from the sea running through as a relish and a vim that keeps your hold of the palate. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted February 2023

Podere La Cappella Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2020, San Donato in Poggio

Vineyards are 24-25 year-old for Riserva with some (25 percent) new barriques used for aging. Soft yet elastic tannins equip this 2020 for deeper term aging to the end of its first decade. Once again it is a matter of vintage and this one will see Riserva last several years longer than the Annata. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted May 2023

The Davaz Family

Poggio al Sole – San Donato in Poggio

Poggio Al Sole Gran Selezione DOCG Casasilla 2020, San Donato In Poggio

Casasilia which can mean “the blessed house” is tied to Badia a Passignano just one kilometre away and the pre-1990 name of Poggio al Sole under the previous ownership. The flagship wine that was Riserva changed to Gran Selezione as of the 2012 vintage. Best grapes, harvested a bit later and longer macerati”on. Once fermentation and maceration are complete the “130 percent sent to barriques (between 10 and 20 percent new) is then narrowed down to its 100 number. Hard to imagine or find more suave texture and refinement which in GS translates as scorrevole. Which tells us that Poggio al Sole has as much in common with Panzano as it does with San Donato in Poggio. Playful acidity, precision and fine tuning. Runs on Swiss time if you will. A mulch of grippy tannin on the back end suggests waiting a year or two. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted December 2023

Duccio Corsini – Villa Le Corti

Principe Corsini – Villa Le Corti

Principe Corsini – Villa Le Corti Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, San Casciano

Vino geloso, digestivo, balanced and beautiful, in perfect freshness and condition. Naturally sweet fruit, best ever Classico from Le Corti – or at least right there with some that have not yet been tasted. Last tasted October 2023

Firm and apropos of maker and location, reddest of red San Casciano fruit developed with purpose in vineyards graced by river stones of vines in the path of beneficial marine winds. You can feel the breathability and even a shade of saltiness streaking through the red berry aromas. Crisp, crunchy and then chewy as the wine fleshes across the palate. Duccio Corsini gets better and better at making wines of clarity and profundity. Grande Principe! Drink 2025-2033. Tasted February 2023

Principe Corsini – Villa Le Corti Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Cortavecchia 2020, San Casciano

As with Le Corti Annata the wines see 27hL casks and colorino is used, “only for the tradition.” The Cortavecchia is intrinsically connected to the Annata, they are brethren and the selection between one and the other happens after fermentation. First comes the spezzaturra and then the division. The river stone soil earthiness is carnale not animale and from 2020 there is more flesh and body then before. This means more settling and grounding but also roundness than what happened in 2018, but also surely what will come from 2021. Drink 2023-2029. Tasted October 2023

River stones, Villa Le Corti, San Casciano

Principe Corsini – Villa Le Corti 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 twice October 2023

Principe Corsini – Villa Le Corti Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Don Tommaso 2019, 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 2019, 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 and then into the first stretches of the next decade. Drink 2024-2031. Tasted twice October 2023

Principe Corsini – Villa Le Corti Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Zac 2019, San Casciano

At the crested top of the Villa Le Corti (Chianti Classico) hill sits Zac, a 100 percent Gran Selezione that means everything in terms of memory, excellence and especially potential. This is a top tier wine that will realize potential in the most existential and reverential of ways because it does not celebrate what could have been but rather what will be. The vintage is seminal, essential and critical to moving forward. It’s fruit is substantial, youthfulness so beautiful and character to be admired. So much thought has gone into this focused Gran Selezione and it just may be the one. Above all else the most suave yet precise GS thus far for Le Corti. Note that this is labeled San Casciano in Val di Pesa, one year ahead of the curve, well two but nobody has really noticed. It’s about doing right things, not wrong ones. Now this is what this is, from great riverstone and clay in this northwest corner of Chianti Classico where a river ran raging six million years ago. This is magnanimously elegant stuff and it shows beautifully right at this very moment. And look 20 years forward to what it will become. “It’s not what I want – it’s what comes out of it,” says Duccio Corsini. “This is my ambition.” Drink 2025-2034. Tasted twice October 2023

Manfred Ing – Querciabella, Greve

Querciabella – Greve

Querciabella Chianti Classico DOCG 2020

First vintage in which 10 percent of the new Casole (Lamole) vineyard provides lift by fruit at higher elevation, even upwards of the already 500m-plus Ruffoli vines in Greve. Some Radda and Gaiole fruit are still small percentages in the mix and so harmony is achieved by layering clones, villages, communes and UGAs in the most multifarious of ways. There have been stylish and luxe Querciabella Classicos in the past (like 1999) and this is surely one of those follow-up Annata (after 2019) that takes another step. A rise in lift and a furtive move into new grip, speaking in new slang and creating another decade initialization that forges a new epoch of Querciabella wines. Last tasted May 2023

New directions, adjustments and mediations take Querciabella’s Annata into ever developing progressions and investigative accessing of new territory. Here from 2020 winemaker Manfred Ing finds new texture or next level mouthfeel for an Annata increasingly becoming and speaking on behalf of Greve and especially the Ruffoli hill. This vintage is not asked to over deliver and the statement made is one of drink-ability but also impression over expression. Top examples don’t try to impress – they simply do what’s necessary and so a deep impression is ultimately made. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted February 2023

Querciabella Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2019, Greve

Riserva is of course a matter of sangiovese from Ruffoli and a very specific selection that looks to establish clarity and finesse. As transparent and delicate as Riserva will ever get in Classico, of fruit juicy red and then also orange citrus, taut, tightly wound and of a Ruffoli bled, calcari-macigno intensity. When you taste Riserva 2019 and Annata 2020 side by side you may just see how the latter will live longer while the former wants to please with extreme prejudice over the next five to seven years. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted May 2023

Querciabella Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2018, Greve

Hold the fort, or UGA, as they say. Dios mio man, Querciabella has done something extraordinary out of 2018 and that is make an elegant and ethereal example of Gran Selezione at low (14 percent) alcohol while delivering great concentration – to follow a most aromatic 2018. Extreme perfume and also unction with the ideal balance afforded to all parts, in synch, trodding and treading as one. It really does feel as though the fruit is suspended in liquid, as if weightless but fully formed and gliding though macerative juices. When everything comes together this will show as one of the great Chianti Classico Gran Selezione 2018s – for a decade and a half’s time. Drink 2025-2038. Tasted October 2023

Rocca Delle Macìe

Rocca Delle Macie Chianti Classico DOCG 2022, Castellina

The line of Rocca delle Maciè Chianti Classico is now separated from the single estate wines, but says Andrea Zingarelli “these are the wines that show where we were born.” Another hot vintage but perhaps more equilibrium overall than 2021 and it shows. This separates from Famiglia Zingarelli and yet it’s inextricably linked. There is five percent merlot that rounds it out and the fruit comes from all the (and only) Castellina estates. No noise, just the facts and the sounds, smells and tastes of the territory. This may just be the cleanest, naturally sweetest and perfectly drinkable Rocca delle Maciè Chianti Classico ever produced. It will appeal to any and all. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted December 2023

Rocca Delle Macìe Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2021, Castellina

Though 2022 is such a fine, amenable and drinkable vintage and 2021 more compacted in so many ways – well when you make a cuvée of all your Castellina estates and choose only the finer grapes – you can make a very proper and promising Riserva. Cool, just a kiss of wood and saltiness, violets and a bit of rounding softness from cabernet sauvignon. Sees 12-14 months in barrel and comes away rich, nurturing and silky smooth. For now and a few years but not much longer. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted December 2023

Rocca Delle Macìe Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 1995, Castellina

Good if at times cool and wet vintage, especially in August of 1995 with the style at the time being all about hanging for ripeness and creating power through extras provided by the barrel. Also more international grapes used at the time, with 15 percent cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Still some acid and freshness here with true fruit and wood sweetness. In really nice shape and who would not be pleased to have a glass with a braise of coniglio. Drink 2023-2024. Tasted December 2023

Rocca Delle Macìe Chianti Classico Riserva di Fizzano DOCG 1995, Castellina

Very different from the Rocca delle Maciè Riserva in that maturity and depth are both increased though bright fruit and sweetness less so. An earthy and soy-juiced 1995, feeling older and clearly pushed a bit harder while also receiving more wood at that time. Still it’s a good showing for a 28 year-old sangiovese with its very noticeable cabernet and merlot. Tasted Drink 2023-2024. Tasted December 2023

Rocca Delle Macìe Chianti Classico Riserva di Fizzano DOCG 1988, Castellina

Reeks of mint and a pine forest with aged balsamic. A massive aromatic display that feels old but oh so nice. Wow aromas and you feel like taking a sip is almost unnecessary to find the beauty in this wine. The palate is very consistent and carries the same message. Fresh and inviting from another sip, this from a 35 year-old wine out of Chianti Classico. Drink 2023-2024. Tasted December 2023

Rocca Delle Macìe Famiglia Zingarelli Tenuta Le Maciè Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Sergioveto 2021, Castellina

A single estate wine that used to be an IGT with 20 percent merlot and cabernet sauvignon but now 100 percent sangiovese from Tenuta le Maciè. A north exposition that just 20 years ago could not fully ripen. The acidity still runs high but the fruit ripeness has caught up and so a much more balanced wine, in the vein of lets say Radda Chianti Classico. This is harvested in October, later than many with calcari (Alberese) soil and its outcroppings of schist-flakey Galestro. No new wood, just 3rd and 4th passage for a light covering but the fruit still stands on its own. This is very refined and sleek with mid-term aging the sure and famous guarantee. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted December 2023

Famiglia Zingarelli Tenuta Fizzano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Il Crocino 2021, Castellina

The name Il Crocino is the name of the plot (within the larger vineyard) and the second of this label because it takes five years to receive approval after initial filing the application. From the upper part of the hill with 10 percent colorino and the only sangiovese that sees some tonneaux, along with Gamba botti. The soils are quite sandy, Arenaria style and so Fizzano delivers a finer, sleeker and less structured wine. Was literally the beach way back when and so that is the mindset you would have when drinking this Gran Selezione though preferably up on a terrace with simple if fine and delicate cuisine. Was bottled in July and so some five more months should be granted before really considering a first glass. These are fine tannins, lightly grainy but not chalky and age-ability from the very proper vintage should be up to 10 years after vintage. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted December 2023

Rocca Delle Macìe Gran Selezione Chianti Classico DOCG Tenuta Di Fizzano 2020, Castellina

Moving forward 20 months and know this. Fizzano is in the zone, ready, willing, able and intent on pleasing as it can, must and should. And no, do not put these away for much longer, a year or two if you like but the best drinking times are now, in the immediate present tense. Some fresh noodles prepared by your favourite Italian chef with a ragù of veal or wild boar and behold: Sergio’s your zio! Last tasted October 2023

Take the 2018 Riserva di Fizzano and move ahead with forward and current conditions acumen to open a new door, that being Tenuta di Fizzano. Makes great sense and so ideal to use this round, beautiful and amenable vintage for the change to make even greater sense. Sweetly concentrated fruit, good quality ’19 acids that never sear nor steal the spotlight all fall into a round and soft structural line. Even better value if not the vintage to cellar too long. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted February 2022

Rocca Delle Macìe Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Sergio Zingarelli 2020, Castellina

Since 2014 has only been 100 percent sangiovese with this 2020 still so youthful in fact it’s a bit reductive so give these early opened bottles some agitation. Better to wait a few years and allow this to settle in. A bit of frost but nothing to fret about and a less complicated vintage as compared to the coming 2021. Only French wood with grapes coming from the single vineyard down from the winery on Alberese soil. Best selection from three of the five hectares and ripening was just about as even throughout from, top to bottom, 30 metres (330 to 360) in change on five terraces. Still a few harvests are made because the bottom retains more water and acts with great vigour. Rich and full, substantial and yet fresher than many Gran Selezione. Also the silkiest and smoothest, Castellina calling card of a Gran Selezione. Drink 2026-2033. Tasted December 2023

Rocca Delle Macìe Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Sergio Zingarelli 2018, Castellina

Has been 20 months since first tasting the 2018 Zingarelli Gran Selezione and as it was expected the drinking window is by now open, but not fully so. A bigger and gripper wine than originally assessed with string bones and plenty of flesh hanging on this well-developed ’18 frame. In fine shape right now, the fruit showing some maturity and every reason to drink with a fine dining experience in this glass. Last tasted October 2023

The team at Rocca delle Macìe surely heeded the vintage call and did nothing to press the situation. The pedal is not laid down to the metal and a slow travelling grace does indeed fill the glass from this 100 per cent sangiovese. Sweet berry and plum fruit in season, ripe and juicy lead to an easy glide and these are the softest Gran Selezione tannins from any Sergio Zingarelli made so far. Drink these young while the bigger and more demanding ’16 and ’17 take their time. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted February 2022

Marco Ricasoli – Rocca di Montegrossi

Rocca di Montegrossi – Gaiole

Rocca di Montegrossi Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Gaiole

Sangiovese with canaiolo and colorino of a deep Chianti Classico hue that Marco Ricasoli explains “is fixed by the Alberese. It’s the calcium in the limestone that really helps this process.” So different than sangiovese coming from Macigno (as a general rule) yet here the colour is full and opaque. Fresh vintage, substantial fruit, quantity high, all things a winemaker wants from Chianti Classico. Purity of aromas, linear of style, stony moments from start to finish. Just beginning to open up and really quite salty. Will surely see this last through the decade in a nearly primary state. Last tasted October 2023

Surprising grip and structure here from Rocca di Montegrossi’s 2021 Annata, well not exactly shocking but this is a vintage wine quite far from readying towards release. Tannins are fine chained, grained, unbreakable and of a saltiness really connecting the mineral dots of this wine. Some canaiolo and colorino bring added seasoning and so sapidity is a thing. Crunchy for Gaiole and less herbaceous than most. Should begin to open in 18 months or so. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted February 2023

Rocca di Montegrossi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Vigneto San Marcellino 2018, Gaiole

There is ten percent pugnitello with the sangiovese, already meeting the new requirements of the Gran Selezione. From the 2020 vintage San Marcellino will say Gaiole on the label. Aging is 25 months in barriques, tonneaux and botti, 25 per cent new oak overall. Almost three years in bottle at this stage. Finest of San Marcellino tannins are coming about ever so slowly, surely to mature over a 15 year period. Tells Marco Ricasoli, “elegance does not mean weakness. The power does not affect your mouth.” Posit tug between salinity and sapidity. Last tasted October 2023

So fresh, young and structured but my if there is another Gaiole Selezione with as much stuffing as San Marcellino it would be beneficial to hear about it. Thirty-plus year potential. Truthfully. Tasted May 2023 The next San Marcellino Gran Selezione is a big one, strong willed and big-boned, laced with trace schisty-marl-Galestro elements and minerals from a vineyard capable of structuring wines like no other. This is Monti in Chianti, of all the red, blue and black fruits, coming away violet purple and speaking about a season. A warm one, all the way through to October and the phenolic ripeness here is off the proverbial charts. Wow. Drink 2025-2037. Tasted February 2023

Rocca di Montegrossi Vinsanto del Chianti Classico DOCG 2013, Gaiole

The methodology at Rocca di Montegrossi is not simply one of drying grapes but hung on nets tied to rails where berries can be removed if they show negative mould. Vinsanto from Montegrossi and 2013 is a seriously unique iteration, transparently mahogany, deep and sonorous, acidity a rumble like a low bass line. The wine after pressing in January is kept for a few months in tanks at 16 degrees celsius which stabilizes and “cleans” the wine. Then to caretelli in mulberry and chestnut wood. As viscous as Vinsanto can get, texture developed after eight years plus three more in bottle. High sugar concentration, a maple syrup note, caramelized orchard fruit, quince, clarity and so clean. Only malvasia nera, finished at 13 percent alcohol. Ideal, nutty and as focused as it gets for this level and style of dessert wine. Drink 2023-2038. Tasted October 2023

Canadian sommeliers tasting at Ruffino

Ruffino – Castellina

Ruffino Chianti Classico DOCG Aziano 2021

Multiple estates gathered Classico, mainly sangiovese with some canaiolo and only stainless steel. Herbal, dusty and deep in fruit, some fennel and true depth, but also local savour. Could only be Classico no matter the number of vineyards are organized, collectivized and championed inside this wine. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted May 2023

Ruffino Santedame Chianti Classico DOCG 2019, Castellina

Single estate Classico, that being Santedame in Castellina and the next vintage will be certified organic. Augmented and stylized, in fact also made stylish by cabernet sauvignon and merlot to raise the sangiovese bar. Chewy and substantial, wood developed texture and a full on chocolate plus espresso finish. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted May 2023

Ruffino Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Ducale 2019

The Riserva that has always been made, in every vintage, as opposed to the Ducale Oro, only made in selected vintages, now and for the last 10-plus years as Gran Selezione. A selection from all of Ruffino’s Chianti Classico estates and truly the workhorse to connect quantity with quality. Wholly and recognizably impressive length tells us everything we need to know about Ruffino quality at the Riserva level. Especially considering there are often one million bottles produced. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted May 2023

Ruffino Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DCCG Riserva Ducale Oro 2019, Castellina

With five percent merlot and (15) colorino but the merlot will disappear going forward. Take the Riserva Ducale and imagine every part elevated, exaggerated and taken to a more precise but also intensified level. That said there is a new idea of elegance not certain this historical wine has ever really shown. Just now entering a social and open place as we speak. Drinking beautifully. Drink 2023-2028. Tasted May 2023

Ruffino Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Romitorio Di Santedame 2019,

Castellina Romitorio, the name of the vineyard, from an Italian word that means “not something mine or yours, an abbey or monastery that belongs to all.” Some toasty oak involved in this estate specific Selezione and a more structured composition that will require several years to loosen, freshen and eventually drink with distinction. My what a professional and designed expression of Chianti Classico. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted May 2023

Leonardo Bellacini – San Felice

San Felice – Castelnuovo Berardenga

San Felice Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Mixing in colorino and pugnitello does more than just variegate the Annata but effects unique changes and reactions that sangiovese wants to achieve. That is to find an expression of its own and a way to interpret much of San Felice’s 150 hectares in one broad brushstroke of hue and texture. This is the crux, especially from what Leonardo Bellacini describes as a “buonissimo” 2021 and the spiced aromatics are accepted by balsamic to create the thing. The definition and dictionary entry into the world of San Felice is right here. Last tasted October 2023

Annata or anything else by San Felice can only act like a child and a rebellious one at that when tasted so early in its tenure. Barrel and tannin are far from ready to relent and allow their wine its due. There is a fortress door to open and the substance behind the gates lies in waiting to be free. Two years methinks before that becomes reality. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted February and May 2023

San Felice Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG Il Grigio 2020, Castelnuovo Berardenga

There is some peppery character especially on the aromatics and all the while the spices plus balsamic elements are consistent with the Annata, both from 2020 and 2021. Fruit is the same sourcing as the Annata but here the substantial quality by selection and extra aging in wood (mainly Botti Grandi, none of it new) means more weight and texture. Glycerol now, a silky-smooth elixir with chic style and more variegate tones. Ambient and plenty of succulence. Good structure from 2020. Last tasted October 2023

San Felice Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2020, Castelnuovo Berardenga

The sangiovese comes from the highest of the San Felice vineyards with a few points here and there of other indigenous varieties like the variant of colorino (called abrusco), malvasia, pugnitello and ciliegiolo. So youthful with still gritty or sandy tannins, high tonality but always the balsamic, spices and herbs. Wood is very much in the aromatic mix but also on the texture, thick as thieves with those hard-working tannins. Give it five years and things will get oh so very interesting. Drink 2026-2034. Tasted October 2023

San Felice Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Poggiorosso 2020, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Poggiorosso as the second Gran Selezione is also labeled as Castelnuovo Berardenga for the first vintage under the new allowable UGA rules. Now from a single vineyard, an Alberese limestone source planted in 2000 and yet a consistent or at least seamless segue from the multi-site and multi-varietal GS. An extraordinary example of Selezione, rich and powerful but so accepting of its wood, seamlessly organized, oriented and original in every respect. Really elegant here from Leonardo Bellacini. Drink 2025-2035. Tasted October 2023

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

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

With Sophie Conte

Tregole

Tregole Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Castelllina

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

Tregole Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2019, Castellina

Comes from Vigna Adulta, the young one below the oldest planted vineyard. Spends close to three years in old barriques and part in the large (700L) tonneaux. Important time in cement as well but also in bottle before hitting the market. This was the first year it spent an extra year in bottle. Lower vineyard with more organic matter and it comes out meaty, almost gamey, with concentration and musculature. Tannins are very fine, no rusticity, less austere and more texture from the sweetness of the parts. Maybe less Tregole but more a matter of warmth and the mature ways of sangiovese. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted December 2023

Sophie Conte – Tregole, Castellina

Tregole Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2018, Castellina

Comes from the block called Asine (because there are donkeys on this part of the farm), and receives the longest maceration (nearly a month). The problem of 2018 was rain, for Tregole quite a bit in September and the picking happened three times because of unclean grapes and ripening variability. Tannins were green before October but the last few days of September brought heat (30 degrees) and nearly 30 degree drops at night. Saved the vintage with preserved acidity and while early appreciation may have been difficult in the beginning the llof of this Gran Selezione is surely improving over time. Great acidity and salty character, a bit sanguine and in the end a classic (this part of Chianti Classico) sandstone effect. More so than most that are not called Lamole. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted December 2023

With Roberto and Lis Bianchi

Val Delle Corti

Val Delle Corti Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Radda

A blend of parcels, many 25-30 years of age. Was a great spring during lockdown, long, sunny, pure through April and then suddenly cool and rainy in May. Then what followed was a variable, unsteady summer. Not the most equilibrium with late September cold and rain. Some difficulty in the selection because of differences in ripening. What does all that adversity, especially as it pertains to Radda add up to? Well, for one thing Roberto Bianchi’s Annata ’21 smells and tastes like Radda, transparent in its openness, cool, herbal and savoury. Truly, expressly, ostensibly and allegedly Radda with sangiovese born and raised in a very specific, high elevation part of Chianti Classico. Definitive, Macigno-stony and age-worthy, if not the fleshiest of them all. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted December 2023

Val Delle Corti Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2020, Radda

Riserva comes from the steep 1974 vineyard to the left (north) of the house planted by Roberto Bianchi’s father Giorgio, aged for 30 months in botti and tonneaux. A true single plot that may or may not as well be wink-wink, nudge-nudge Gran Selezione. Cool and ethereal like Annata 2020 with some spice cupboard arriving at the same time as the tannins for that unresolved protein powder feeling. Still it is understood that Val delle Corti’s sangiovese are youthful, fresh, crunchy and tart. Full and corpulent with potential being the thing about this 2020 and what’s required to see it open three years later before beginning to tell its true story. A bit raw or crudo at this stage. Drink 2026-2033. Tasted December 2023

With Andrea Bianchi-Bandinelli – Villa di Geggiano

Villa di Geggiano

Villa di Geggiano Chianti Classico DOCG 2019, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Solo sangiovese aged in 500L tonneaux for 18 months. Dry ice is used during fermentation which means no to very little sulphites usage. Wines are stable, pure and eight months later this acts like it’s almost ready because of soft tannins – but think again. They are sneaky ones and while we are teased by the generosity we also know this ’19 will age a decade or two. Last tasted October 2023

Geggiano must have time in a bottle, “ticking the moments that make up a dull day,” to come away later on, expressive of the Alberese soil (mainly) and deliver what has to be this place. Castelnuovo Berardenga that is and yet this valley with its ridges to the east and west is like no other place because winds, rain, sun and air flow differently, acting upon pure sangiovese to create wines like this. What this is exactly can’t be precisely said but this 2019 is the irrepressible essence indivisible to the history of the past. Also the present, right here in this glass, prescient, pure, persistent and built to last. Sangiovese from Geggiano is the future. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted February and May 2023

Villa di Geggiano Chianti Classico DOCG 2003, Castelnuovo Berardenga

A most intriguing older vintage to taste because of the great heat that swept across the whole of Europe and here of a hue that could best be described as nero di sepia. Dark inflections, a grainy transparency and truth be told there is great freshness in this near 20 year-old Chianti Classico, certainly more than what shows in 2007 (or at least the bottle poured). The nose is what can be referred to as stern, a thing of age and yet blood orange and even more so sanguine character. Freshness again, dios mio, especially on the palate and tasted blind I might say 2010. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted October 2023

Villa di Geggiano

Villa di Geggiano Chianti Classico DOCG 2000, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Aromatically similar to 2003 and perhaps even more maturity but it seems the wood was very much in charge. And yet the perfumes are essential and elevated, oils and distillate compounds that could have only come out in the last two or three years. Truffle and porcini, not quite a broth but more dried and then this frutta di bosco note. The finish is all caffé and liquorice. Very complex wine Drink 2023. Tasted October 2023

Geggiano Chianti Classico DOCG Ai Lecci 2019, Castelnuovo Berardenga

The newest wine, from an east/southeast vineyard shaded with a line of silver oaks, thus the name Ai Lecci, a nod to these protectors of the block. A project of Andrea’s son Gregorio with a sensitivity to the natural world; organics, beeswax capped and the most minimal of sprays, but also motivations that express vineyard from the get go in a very young wine. Sharp, pointed, linear, focused, precise and of tannins so wise and very fine. Approximately 4,000 bottles will be released in January, 2024. Drink 2025-2035. Tasted October 2023

With Cokie Ponikvar at Geggiano

Villa Di Geggiano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2018, Castelnuovo Berardenga

There is five percent cabernet sauvignon to enrich the pure Geggiano micro-climate, organic and generously rich sangiovese. The concept of Geggioan’s Riserva is not to make the biggest, baddest and strongest but one of charm and grace. This is close to the latter yet still shows it teeth and there is some gariga in this ’18 – but also a classic balsamic “terziale” that comes from the combination of Riserva style and older vines. Seriously good from a variable vintage. Not quite ready. Last tasted October 2023

Riserva is 90 percent sangiovese with (five each) canaiolo and cabernet sauvignon, vinified just like the Classico, with dry ice at the time of pressing. Only coarse filtered and by doing so keeping all the structure intact. Aged 18 months in 500L tonneaux and truth is the connection to Annata is guaranteed, simply because the micro-climate and generosity of the soils are sure to be the most important factors involved. Fruit concentration is as full, impressive and layered as it gets, tannins as ripe as they will be anywhere in the Chianti Classico territory. Will only improve with a few years in bottle. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted May 2023

Villa Di Geggiano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2016, Castelnuovo Berardenga

A particular perfume and very fresh ’16 as Riserva, deep in hue, berries also fresh with so much acidity intact and this mentholated (mentolato) note, with mirto and pepe lungo. Incredibly chalky and so adept at its structure, ready and willing to surprise with complexities known and also so many unknown. Drink 2024-2033. Tasted October 2023

Villa Di Geggiano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2012, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Always the same recipe with five percent cabernet sauvignon with this a cold and wet vintage but history tells us that these do end up being the kind of structured wines that surprise well into the future. Tells Andrea Bianchi Bandinella “to be honest we were suspicious in 2012 but made Riserva anyway.” Good thing because it has held up more than admirably, in fact the umami is extraordinary while the presence of Brettanomyces is anything but a distraction. Porcini broth and dried herbs line the inside walls and help to elevate the interest. Great showing. Last tasted October 2023

The 2012 is the current release because they (Geggiano and sangiovese) need time in the bottle. They simply keep a firm grip on their youth for quite an extended period of time. Riserva for the Bianchi-Bandinelli brothers is a matter of the best vines and the better barrel samples. Creosote and graphite really come from this nose, with tapenade, blood orange and violets. It’s almost more red fruit than the Annata “but that’s alchemy,” says Alessandro BB. This is a great example of work done alongside sangiovese oenologist Paolo Vagaggini, to transfer the variegate of the vineyard, through the conduit of time, into the glass. Still so young with great chains of stretched tannins, to be better in three more years. Drink 2020-2031. Tasted September 2018

Villa Di Geggiano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2009, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Arguably the finest secondary character and now the initialization of the tertiary but there’s still this fresh plum note that keeps the wine in a state of macerate tremors. Showing as stylish and elegant as a 14 year-old sangiovese (with five percent cabernet sauvignon) and the sense of calm is meditative, zen and in the regulated place. Breathes are cool, even and the wine seems motionless. Remarkable place and time. Last tasted October 2023

Tasted alongside the 2012 there is a marked humidity and warmth of vintage and now three years on the balsamico and chocolate are really beginning to emerge. Certainly more strength and depth, the chains of tannin and command are breaking down and the wine is entering its next stage of life. Warm, silky smooth and soothing. Drink 2020-2027. Tasted September 2018

Villa Di Geggiano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2007, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Very mature, silky and liquid chalky. Salty and mineral. Showing with great complexity if also quite a bit of age. Last tasted October 2023

A warm and balanced vintage, older vines (between 20 and 35 years old) speak straight to me though proprietor Andrea Boscu Bianchi Bandinelli prefers his 2006. Geggiano’s Castelnuovo Berardenga Chianti Classico vineyards are located northeast of Siena and Ponte e Bozzone, a terroir composed of clay, river silt and galestro. Clean, pure and bright, this could easily pass for 2011, or even 2013. The aromatic brightness eases the mind and prepares the palate for the 10 year development of grit and power so in the end there is equity that leads to elegance. Chianti Classico Riserva as a gift of experience. Drink 2017-2021. Tasted February 2017

Tomasso and Cosimo Bojola – Squarcialupi

Tenute Squarcialupi

Tenute Squarcialupi La Castellina Chianti Classico DOCG Cosimo Bojola 2020, Castellina

“The vintage 2020 was for me the perfect combination between vineyards and amphora,” explains Cosimo Bojola, in how the mix of yeasts, fruit and time could come to what he and his oenologist wanted to achieve. Aromatic herbs are very prominent, of laurel (bay leaf) and teas mixed with minerals that induce the want for tasting another glass. Just about a year in amphora and the aromas can never escape this idea, but tasting this one year after a fresh and frankly too young 2021 is now the right time. Cosimo loves the sweetness of the nose and truthfully speaking this has settled so that it can be looked at as a finer structured wine than that of 2019. “I would like to reduce the amount of sulphur dioxide to increase the perception of sweetness,” says Cosimo, “but it can be a dangerous trick.” The finish is piqued with spiciness, a machia della terrenea, again of the wild Mediterranean herbs. Anaesthetizes the palate and leaves you wanting more. Drink 2023-2030. Tasted December 2023

Tenute Squarcialupi La Castellina Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Castellina

Much different expression than the Cosimo Bojola, here without amphora and also with five percent colorino. Not quite as easy drinking as the Bojola of tannins drier and tighter. The aromas and flavours but also textures are smooth, pliant and compliant but the wine overall still needs some time. Last tasted December 2023

The label is a of a painter in the Squarcialupi Palace, drawn by Cosimo Bojola. Just over a year in medium sized cask, same vintage as the Amphora Chianti Classico yet darker of fruit which seems counterintuitive to this not remaining on skins for 11 months – as with the Cosimo Bojola. It’s the colorino, even at five percent doing the hue-mans work. Rich and unctuous, high acid tang, intense and a bit vivid. Stays its course all the way through, never wavering or being led to distraction, neither by overly aggressive tannins or astringencies. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted February 2023

Tenute Squarcialupi La Castellina Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2018, Castellina

Aged part in barriques and part (Gamba) cask 15 and 26 hL sizes. Riserva sees the long maceration, as much as 60 days in the ways of macerazione Piedmontese, that being capello sommerso (under a submerged cap). For father and son Riserva must be made, for tradition, every vintage, even if you only make Gran Selezione once every few years. It is 100 percent sangiovese and one that does nothing to abandon its roots or what it means to its makers. Suave and smooth though there is a spiciness and a sweetness that can’t be denied. Extra layers to peel away and next moment to be revealed. A wine of thought and length, nearly in its right place. Last tasted December 2023

All sangiovese, subjected to a prolonged capello sommerso maceration for up to two months. Spends two years in smaller wood, 10 and 14 hL sizes and going forward there will be at least some amphora aging for this wine. Much meatier and marbled than both Annata with Cinta Senese muskiness and peppery finocchiona spice. Complex Riserva in so many respects, plenty of fruit substance with minerals popping in and out at every turn. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted February 2023

Tenute Squarcialupi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG 2016, Castellina

Single vineyard Gran Selezione made in a vintage that just seems to have been designed for this kind of appellative wine. Not labeled but the vineyard is called the “lavendere,” a place that was close to where the clothes were washed, like a “sorgente.” Deep and sonorous, a sangiovese that has settled with sauce and long-chained tannins. A remarkably centred if also vertical Gran Selezione that speaks to a very specific part of Castellina in Chianti. Can drink this now but will surely shows its best in two years. Last tasted December 2023

A 100 percent sangiovese made from the sace vineyard as Riserva, of same prolonged maceration a la Capello sommerso. Aging in small Tuscan barrels made near Rufina, barriques and tonneaux of size. Adds a tougher and grippier feel to sangiovese, unlike the softness of French barriques. This Selezione has settled well and the fruit is remarkably fresh. All parts of this ’16 are in order, in symbiosis repeated and layered, folding back upon itself again and again. Ready to drink, wholly enjoyable, now and for a few more winters. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted February 2023

Sangiovese of the Castellina UGA

Annata

Castellina

Buondonno Chianti Classico DOCG Podere Casavecchia Alla Piazza 2021, Castellina

The biggest and most fruit compacted vintage for Gabriele Buondonno, so free and natural, unhindered and with no distraction to take away from the fruit. No jam, not a bomb but compressed and just massive. Acids are neither shy nor lagging but right there in stride- though this does not qualify as the most tannic of Buondonno’s wines. Structure of a different accord. Last tasted May 2023

High glycerin, notable alcohol and structure as well. A big wine as always for Gabriele Buondonno for several reasons, namely elevation and solar radiation but also the intangible of conversion rates and things just being natural, the way they simply have to be. Some vintages are bigger and greater than others and for sangiovese in varietal purity this out of 2021 will equivocate with superior strength, balance and trenchant intensity. Count on it. Drink 2025-2031. Tasted February 2023

Fattoria Rodàno Chianti Classico DOCG 2019, Castellina

The name is not exactly known but records show that the property was a hospital for pilgrims on the French road to Rome. The name is preserved in books since the 13th century. Amazing aromatics, sweet florals and brushy herbs, neighbour to and so similar to Bibbiano but there really is no fully qualified comparison. Nice little bit of sausage felt on the palate for a truly characterful Classico. Sangiovese is 90 percent with (5) each canaiolo and colorino. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted May 2023

Capraia Chianti Classico DOCG 2019, Castellina

The Castellina property of Gaiole’s Rocca di Castagnoli, upwards of Lilliano on the way up to Rodano and Bibbiano. Intense and dusty, feeling so very Alberese in its stony and really taut aromas. A wine needing quite a bit of time, that much is perceived from how wound and unforgiving it is at this time. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted May 2023

Canadians sommeliers on tour with Masnaghetti

Casanuova Di Nittardi Chianti Classico Vigna Doghessa DOCG 2020, Castellina

All sangiovese from above the Conca d’Oro looking east and a neighbour of both Buondonno and also Bucciarelli. Quite a tannic 2020, dusty and filled with garriga. Savour of a unique and fulsome kind. Must be given time. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted May 2023

Castagnoli Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Castellina

Balsamic straight away from a deftly traditional Chianti Classico that speaks of place with bay leaf and perhaps some spice brought on by wood, especially barriques. Taut, tart and a new kind of Classico intensity, very fresh and young. Last tasted May 2023

High octane red fruit with a decidedly higher acid drive puts this sangiovese in fine speed with trailing vaporous emission. Very young and this vintage of 2021 seems to need more time than most any looking back just about a decade of time. Yes a good deal will be released to the markets this year but it has been a while since needing time in bottle is more important than this particular vintage. Great length here on Castagnoli’s 2021 to speak of greater things yet to come. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted February 2023

Fattoria Pomona Chianti Classico DOCG Vigna Pomona 2019, Castellina

Pomona was a goddess with a garden rich in fruit who preferred to be with plants then with a man. Smart deity that one. Riserva once called Bandino (after Monica Raspi’s grandfather Bandino Bandini). Only sangiovese and a precision at the highest level in a glycerin meeting structural composition. The combination of grace under pressure and finessed focus is something special with those who feel it, know it. Drink 2025-2034. Tasted May 2023

Alessandro Masnaghetti

Fattoria Rodàno Chianti Classico DOCG 2019, Castellina

Lornano Chianti Classico DOCG 2019, Castellina

No shock to say this ’19 from Lornano is still so young and immovable, a 100 percent sangiovese with all its character, love and passion locked in tight. Generous yes but not yet ready to open, flesh out and deliver what’s behind the wall. Savour and sweetness of natural fruit, compact and substantial, as big a bang for buck as there exists in Castellina. Sangiovese foot soldier. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted May 2023

Piemaggio Chianti Classico DOCG Il Maggio 2019, Castellina in Chianti

Il Maggio may or may not make you feel what it means to be sangiovese from the 2019 Chianti Classico vintage but this much is true. Other grapes make their play and they feel like some kind of combination of canaiolo, colorino and/or especially malvasia nera. The rusticity, yang-yang mix of salinity and sapidity but most of all a gentle swarthiness indicate Castellina off a northwesterly position abutting the ridge coming down from San Donato in Poggio. The blood orange note is a much darker one here and the fruit depth delivers density. This is substantial Chianti Classico, ready to go. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted August 2023

Piemaggio Chianti Classico DOCG Fioraie 2019, Castellina

Highly aromatic sangiovese but also one with so much liquorice and the spice brought on by traditional cask aging. Proper bitter aspect. Tar, roses and old school sentimentality. Last tasted May 2023 Most curious aromatic 2019 from Piemaggio with Chinese five spice all over the waft. That and preserved strawberry, tar and roses. Quite nebbiolo like in some respects with different tannins of course. Cool and savoury, notable evergreen and mint, finely designed and amply structured. Good example of red Castellina while setting its own course of style. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted February 2023

Canadians Sommeliers at Villa Geggiano in Castelnuovo Berardenga

Castelnuovo Berardenga

Podere Lecci e Brocchi Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Castelnuovo Berardenga

At the village of Villa a Sesta with Galestro above the red top soils, fruit coming at the palate in waves.Thick swells of reds with a markedly obvious ferric addendum. The red soils are very much in play, as is a minor sauvage, part volatile and part raw salsiccia. Chewy and cool, a specific kind of Castelnuovo savour and an aftertaste left behind that defines truly sanguine sangiovese. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted May 2023

San Felice Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Tolaini Chianti Classico DOCG Vallenuova 2020, Castelnuovo Berardenga

Perfect place for Vallenuovo here and just 14 months later the concentration and flesh have not only increased but come together seamlessly. Tannins are anchored into the middle cheek, both sides now, “near and far, and still somehow.” Vallenuovo from Castelnuovo Berardenga’s Tolaini is an extracted, generously macerated and humorously concentrated 2020. Last tasted May 2023

Castelo di MeletoThere is just something about Tolaini, an aromatic potpourri specific to this wine in great hyperbole. A bit reductive as many are so early in this vessel and yet agitation really does release the charm. A really well constructed Chianti Classico that will appeal to those who look for fullness, especially through the texture and the finish. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted March 2022

Wines of Gaiole

Gaiole

Castelo di Meleto Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Gaiole

Wonderful to feel the Gaiole spice straight away on a Classico of local aromas part forest and part stone. Both are encouraging and lifting up of fruit so very fresh and alive. Crunchy sangiovese, high acid and just that much rounded by five percent merlot. Just a few months have actually encouraged this ’21 to arrive in a great place and one so accessible for immediate gratification. Last tasted May 2023 Very curious 2021 from Castello di Meleto, almost a sticky effect, like a savoury hard candy dissolving on the palate to reveal new character with each melting moment. Textural sangiovese with five percent merlot, one that works through aeration and on the palate then instigates the mind to imagine many developing possibilities. Sweet acids and tannins too, wanting to integrate but the wine is far too young to involve such foolery. Be patient, it’s sangiovese. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted February 2023

La Montanina Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Gaiole

Manucci Droandi Chianti Classico DOCG Ceppeto 2019, Gaiole

As floral and also mature as any Gaiole sangiovese, lower in acid and conversely elevated in pH so as a result making for a more sapid wine. Lifted as well and so the acidity is more volatile than lactic, again contributing to the florals of this wine. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted May 2023

Podere Ciona Chianti Classico DOCG Proprieta Gatteschi 2019, Gaiole

Intensely floral, cherries at peak, savoury and texturally Gaiole terroir. No matter what, where or how Podere Ciona may have previously interpreted their old vineyards it is this clarity and modernity that now speaks to the future. The rise and standing up to counted is a type of pronouncement felt in palpable ways. Great wines are coming. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted October 2023

Sangiovese of the Greve UGA

Greve

Carpineto Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Greve

A transparent wine from Carpineto, dusty and tart cherry wth a balsamico edge. The accents come straight from the source. Last tasted May 2023

Carpineto’s Greve sangiovese is both unmistakable and akin to wines from another time, of thyme and incense, acids and innocence. You might swear this wine is wearing bell bottoms and preaching about peace and love. Love for the territory and especially the land underfoot. This smells like things that grow, of herbs and tea, resins and saps. Light and with a fluid glycerol feel. Lovely and herbal vintage for the Zaccheo team. Drink 2022-2025. Tasted March 2022

Montecalvi Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Greve

Full perfume from Greve, lift of fruit and really exotic for the UGA. That lift is a guarantee mixing with implosive intensity and then drift. Draughty but gritty, needing time to settle. Drink 2024-2027. Last tasted May 2023

Barrel sample. Showing every minute not yet gained as a sangiovese with a few percentage points of various complimentary grapes (3) canaiolo plus (2) altri vitigni creating a push pull of saline-sapid notations. A bit swarthy and volatility needs to settle but a little bit of sulphur at bottling will do the trick. Tasted February 2023

Tenuta Di Nozzole Chianti Classico DOCG Nozzole 2020, Greve

Evergreen and garrigue as per Greve in Chianti, silken textured with glycerol fill, more tense than combative. Verdant, piquant and yet to shed its wood. Needs some time though the green savour will always be there. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted May 2023

Tenuta La Novella Chianti Classico DOCG Casa Di Colombo 2019, Greve

From 500m Località San Polo in Greve a reductive and earthy sangiovese in the dried red (bokser) pod fruit style and an almost blood orange appeal. Akin to San Donato in Poggio and so unique for Greve with an organic and biodynamic plus from a place just one hop and skip over from the Dudda Valley. This is Chianti Classico of a perfume never really nosed before. The mix of freshness and dried fruit should keep the wine in this state and allow it to age quite well. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted May 2023

Sangiove of Lamole UGA

Lamole

Fattoria Castello di Lamole Chianti Classico DOCG Le Stinche 2016, Lamole

A whole other matter in Lamole from Paolo Socchi, reductive and older, having needed every moment of these seven years to arrive at a place of grace but more are warranted. So evergreen, feeling like a wine picked early and macerated long. In other ways it’s quite mature but one thing’s for sure this sangiovese is unlike any other, even for Lamole. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted October 2023

I Fabbri Chianti Classico DOCG Olinto Grassie e Figlio 2021, Lamole

From the highest vineyard between 620 and 680m for a varietal sangiovese that separates itself from Olinto because that label holds 20 percent merlot, though 2021 will be the last vintage. From what Susanna Grassi calls the “crispy vintage” which translates as freshness incarnate and a crunchiness from seriously spot on pure red fruit. This is so precise and the Lamole perfume exudes out of every pore. Only sees concrete and at Annata level for Lamole that is the exact and proper thing to do. Brilliant. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted October 2023

Wuth Susanna Grassi and John Szabo M.S. in Lamole

I Fabbri Chianti Classico DOCG Terra Di Lamole 2020, Lamole

The adage must always be repeated. The perfume of Lamole is omnipresent, all-pervasive and impossible to separate from the wines themselves. How and why? The answer is difficult to articulate though it is surely a response to the Macigno soils and the climate circulating in the UGA’s amphitheatre. Stand anywhere on the ring road between Casole and Lamole village and you may just feel as though you are in a rainforest. The sandstones mixed with calcareous rock just has to mean mineral transferral onto fruit that in turn scents floral. Not in the classic bouquet of flowers sense but as an example it is Terra di Lamole by Susanna Grassi that makes all this happen. Behold a sangiovese born in the shadow of the Monti del Chianti that shines in its own special way. Terra di Lamome – the land of the UGA, definite, elegant and full of grace. Drink 2024-2030. Tasted May 2023

Il Campino di Lamole Chianti Classico DOCG Testardo 2020, Lamole

Frankincense, myrrh and clove? Smells like a church and feels like an R.E.M. song. From the newest project in Lamole and the aromatics are wild, the wine swarthy and something else altogether. Clove and incense, quinine-based Byrrh liqueur and so much coming from wood. Liquid chalky and somewhat cloying. Drink 2023-2024. Tasted October 2023

Il Campino di Lamole Chianti Classico DOCG Testardo 2019, Lamole

Newest game in town, the neophyte producer making wine from high elevation in Lamole. Similar of expression to 2020 but with more elasticity and elegance. All those elements noted in the 2020 are hereless exaggerated; frankincense, clove, an old house, pine and cedar, amaro herbals and a cloying texture on the palate. But the stretchiness is a bit more stealth this time around. Tannins are finer as well. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted October 2023

Jurji Fiore & Figlia Chianti Classico DOCG Sono Così 2022, Lamole

From Jurji and his daughter Sara, their Lamole vines at 580m on the west/southwest side on sabbioso limo (sandy silt) picked on the 13th of October. Perfumed to the Lamole hilt but make no mistake this is a Fiore wine, a red lightning scintillant of sharp red fruit that comes with some glycerol. The unction and refinement puts this is a rounded and getable place – a very attractive wine for lovers of nebbiolo (from Neive) and Etna Rosso from high elevation like Santo Spirito. Acids are stronger than words and tannin. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted October 2023

Jurji Fiore & Figlia Chianti Classico DOCG Porcacciamiseria 2022, Lamole

An ancient word to say “bugger off,” yet in a polite way, or perhaps “shut the front door,” or maybe “what the flowers.” From a higher point than Sono Così at 650m which is about as high as it will get in Lamole. This has more breeze and also depth with less lightning red fruit and glycerol. Some grit and more endemic rusticity, in part because other endemic varieties join the sangiovese fray. Nutty and plenty of bitter chocolate grip the finish. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted October 2023

Lamole di Lamole Chianti Classico DOCG Maggiolo 2020, Lamole

Quite a plate full of stuffing in Lamole di Lamole’s Maggiolo and so if talking turkey this is impressively concentrated and plush sangiovese from the producer that makes 50 percent of the wines out of the Lamole UGA. Luxe and silken, easy to like, no worries at all to push through what’s right, well and good from the Macigno terraces and terroir of the UGA. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted October 2023

Podere Castellinuzza Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Lamole

Upwards elevation even for Lamole, here between 550 and 600m on two exposures, one to the east and one to the north. In this sense we are looking at the cooler meeting higher sector and so expect a different, more evergreen type of savour to exaggerate the Lamole perfume in a wholly other way. Freshness incarnate, no wood, only cement aging for 20 months and a true authenticity about the expression. Really pure, if you appreciate the way. Classic, naked Lamole Classico. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted October 2023

Podere Poggio Scalette Chianti Classico DOCG Lamole Nonloso 2020, Greve

Superlative aromatics flying out of the glass, first and foremost cinnamon with this combination of its evergreen host’s leaves and also the dried Cinnamomum cassia. Why cinnamon? Just because that’s what it is, a factor of Lamole but in a whole other and truly pinpointed way. Must be the woods nearest this vineyard and the kind of sandstone that pervades beneath its vines. Nonloso is graced by a label designed by Jurji Fiore’s daughter Sara that is so apropos for the gracious and confident expression so specific to the identified and exulted cru. Not to mention the fiery lightning red fruit that defines a Fiore sangiovese. Drink 2025-2033. Tasted May 2023

Lamole-Greve-Montefioralle UGAs

Montefioralle

Villa Calcinaia Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Montefioralle

From the moment you sniff and sip Sebastiano Capponi’s 2020 Chianti Classico you are either reminded or perhaps introduced into his Montefioralle UGA world of ripeness and harmony. Ideal pitch and sway, tactical forces playing off one another and everything in its right place. Always a challenging vintage but the words of Capponi in the Covid summer of 2020 speak to how far he and the territory have come. “I think that winemakers in Chianti Classico now have the ability, like Roberto Conterno had in 2002 when he made Monfortino, to interpret every single vintage without distorting what nature bestows to them.” And there is no distortion out of Calcinaia’s ’20, only similarity and continuation. It breathes sangiovese and lingers with demure philosophy, long after the last taste is gone. Will drink beautifully beginning next winter. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted August 2023

Panzano

Il Palagio Di Panzano Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Panzano

Cool, lightly dusty and then salt-licked, intimating ethereal sangiovse from Il Palagio with a distinctly Pietraforte mixed with Galestro Panzano style. Hard to hide the terroir in 2020, not that it should ever be suppressed but there was no keeping it low this time around. Wood spice, almost of a cupboard masala and the graphite that comes from sangiovese in this part of the UGA. Last tasted May 2023

As far as 2020 and Panzano are concerned there is a great deal of concentration and substance coming three ways from Il Palagio di Panzano’s Annata. Fruit, acid and tannin, all set to high intensity, each sucked and layered upon one another. A Classico in the great sense of the word and the appellation, pure and remarkable, not a sangiovese of any stringent notes despite how much has been pulled from these grapes. Juicy, no dustiness whatsoever and liquid running in soft waves. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted February 2023

Le Fonti Di Panzano Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Panzano

Bigger and clearly firmer vintage for Guido Vitali and Vicky Schmitt-Vitali’s Panzano sangiovese (with some merlot and cabernet sauvignon). That said there’s a glide about the aromas accented and spiced by pencil lead, fresh cut oak and balsamico. Aromatically tart fruit as well and so there is enough going on early to distract from the larger nature of this Annata. Thank goodness Vitali’s “svinatura” is slow and gentle otherwise there might be more here than our palates could handle. Instead there is wry and sly charm, do it yourself workability and in the end a fine example of 2020, Panzano and Le Fonti. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted December 2023

Tenuta Carobbio Chianti Classico DOCG 2018, Panzano

A vintage of pure sapidity for Carobbio and Panzano, namely because of the late warm vintage conditions mediated by cold nights but mainly due to humidity through mineral accumulation in Galestro soils with shards here and there of Calcari and Pietraforte. Length is Cariobbio length, seemingly never-ending, glorious and rising. Grande Dario and team, this 2018 will live as long as any Annata in the territory. Vintages from the 80s, 90s and also those early in this decade have paved the road for an Annata like 2018 to live a very long life. Last tasted May 2023

Then comes along Carobbio with a wine older than almost any other Annata in the collection and yet even from 2018 this sangiovese has yet to hit its stride. Dark fruit of baritone voice and depth puts this in unique territory and it would seem the grapes were mainly picked later, after the two day heat spike at September’s culmination. That said low nighttime temps kept the acidity and so 2018 from Carobbio should age as well as any Riserva and many Gran Selezione from the vintage. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted February 2023

Candian Sommeliers at Terrabianca in Radda

Radda

Arillo in Terrabianca Chianti Classico DOCG Sacello 2021, Radda

Taken from the largest parcel up the hill to the right of the church and no wood involved. Soft and suave, the silkiest Annata imaginable and one that coats the palate with its substantial fruit. Perfume and spice are Raddese, as is acidity, of course. Last tasted May 2023 Intense sangiovese while also drying and tannic with potential to travel far and yet this is certainly not the early beauty of what came from 2020. More so a sangiovese of classicism that must have some time in the bottle before we know what will come. Great length here so there will be a future, that much is guaranteed. Drink 2025-2029. Tasted February 2023

Borgo Salcetino Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Radda

Quite cool, minty, brushy and herbal to represent Radda in the most clear and knowable way. The level of tannin here is notable, markedly elevated for 2020 Chianti Classico and it is apparent that Radda at heights did not ripen at a level much above seven or 7.5 on the scale of these things. Quite a searing example for the season. Drink 2024-2026. Tasted February and May 2023.

Brancaia Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Radda

Brancaia is Brancaia, 100 per cent sangiovese and only done up in concrete, accessible without any obstacles or reasons not to get at this perfect level of freshness. Uncomplicated, acids strong, tart and supportive, fruit all in. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted May 2023

Colle Bereto Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Radda

The most exotic perfume emits from Colle Bereto’s Annata in 2020 and there are none like it. Like cinnamon and coriander, pine and cedar, the forest and the spice cupboard fully involved. A truly structured and formidable wine, especially for 2020 and needing several years to resolve. That said the purity and quality are unwavering. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted February and May 2023

Istine Chianti Classico DOCG Vigna Casanova Dell’aia 2020, Radda

L’Erta di Radda Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, Radda

Extreme perfume for a Diego Finnochi Annata and fully expressive of an iron-rich clay with above ground ensual of Galestro terroir. Really full, fleshy, juicy and substantial, acids tempered by a small percentage of (10 percent) canaiolo. Notable for the sanguine note that arrives on the palate and yet waiting to be drinking this Annata is not an issue. Lovely, consequently and subsequently structured stuff. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted May 2023

Livernano Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Radda

Uses the minimum (80 percent) sangiovese with merlot for as round as it gets as a Chianti Classico expression. Not hot or powered but dusty and lavender floral. Simple and a bit creamy. Drink 2023-2025. Tasted May 2023

Poci Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Radda

A rare Classico with alicante bouschet (10 percent) and as a reaction there is this grenache or zinfandel response. A bit oxidative and also lactic, dried fruit and a caramel creaminess. Tasted May 2023

Podere Capaccia Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, Radda

The fineness of red fruit in layers and made to express breathes of fresh air in fine sprit by elevation in Radda sets this Podere Capaccia up for great success. Charming, graceful and yet grippy enough to stand up, defend its territory and survive for quite a stretch of time. Fine work from Alyson Morgan and team. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted February and May 2023

San Casciano

Castelli del Grevepesa Chianti Classico DOCG Clemente VII 2020, San Casciano

Open, fragrant and fleshy, a sangiovese entirety, chewy, full of liquorice and plum. Getable, straight away, no reason to wait – so pop, pour and enjoy. Very well made Chianti Classico juice of classic proportion by design. Last tasted May 2023

The San Casciano cooperative’s knowable and most recognizable bottle is this Clemente VII, who incidentally was Giulio Zanobi di Giuliano de’ Medici, head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from November 19, 1523 until his death on September 25, 1534. The wine has not been made quite that long but it is one of the territory’s elder sangiovese statesmen and the 2020 version is a heady and fulsome one indeed. Higher in alcohol than some, concentrated to the fullest extent of the year (and Papal law if you like) with silky texture and sour acids. Classic really. Drink 2022-2024. Tasted March 2023

Castello Di Gabbiano Chianti Classico DOCG Cavaliere D’Oro 2020, San Casciano

New label alert. The knight (Il Cavaliere) still rides but the name is removed so that Castello di Gabbiano is fron and centre. A 90 percent sangiovese with (10) split between merlot, cabernet sauvignon and colorino of wild fermentation, partial carbonic maceration and aged in steel with some cask. Finishes in concrete. Freshness incarnate, spicy notes and notable balsamico. Olive and gariga. Fine acidity. Last tasted May 2023

Big production and from 2020 a sizeable wine for Gabbiano’s San Casciano Annata though do not be afraid to aerate and get at it in this calendar year. The fruit is up front even while some wood seasoning persists and assists in creating a classic sangiovese effect. Concrete helps to keep the freshness. Good linger so this 2020 will drink well for a few years to come. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted February 2023

Montesecondo Chianti Classico DOCG 2019, San Casciano

Hard to find a sangiovese from this UGA as sweetley endowed, of fruit and acidity but also savour that celebrates pace. You can recognize estate through the transparency of vintage and the future is clearly expressed in Annata like this. Very special. Last tasted October 2023

The work of Silvio Messana nearly 20 years into his San Casciano tenure, now with organic and biodynamic agriculture. Hard to find this UGA-specific sangiovese has sweetly endowed and structurally empowered as this, of fruit and acidity but also savour. Celebrates San Casciano in a most beautiful way and you can recognize place. Estate as well it seems, through a transparency of vintage and if this is the future of both then we call all look forward to many special wines. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted May 2023

Pazzi Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, San Casciano

Nicely textured sangiovese, dry in may ways, warm and dry. Tannins are a bit resinous, brittle and astringent. New young producer with promise. Tasted October 2023

Principe Corsini – Villa Le Corti Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, San Casciano

Yet another Le Corti sangiovese darkened ever so slightly by (five percent) colorino of a style pure, San Casciano driven, warming and spiced. As luxe as it gets for Mediterranean scented and fleshed Chianti Classico with thanks to a particular mezo-climate and river pebbles in the soils. Finishes at sweet flavours and balsamic reduction. Last tasted May 2023 Firm and apropos of maker and location, reddest of red San Casciano fruit developed with purpose in vineyards graced by river stones of vines in the path of beneficial marine winds. You can feel the breathability and even a shade of saltiness streaking through the red berry aromas. Crisp, crunchy and then chewy as the wine fleshes across the palate. Duccio Corsini gets better and better at making wines of clarity and profundity. Grande Principe! Drink 2025-2033. Tasted February 2023

Tenuta Orsumella Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, San Casciano

As intensely floral as it gets for San Casciano Chianti Classico, of violets and herbal blooms like lavender and rosemary so very beautiful. The UGA’s earthy-savoury underbrush is also there, mixing seamlessly with the flowers. Lovely vintage, airy, lyrical and unrestrained. Some chalkiness in the tannin so be confident this will be a four to six year Annata. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted May 2023

Sangiovese of Viticoltori San Donato in Poggio

San Donato in Poggio

Casa Emma Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, San Donato In Poggio

The 2021s are being shown because many will indeed soon be released yet examples like this from Casa Emma are way too young and unresolved to really speak the language of its ancestry. But my what hides behind the curtain is so real, vivid to the point of acting out a passion play of psychological sangiovese thriller. An Annata with canaiolo and malvasia that twists and winds, sidles and turns through the sangiovese to aerate and intensify. All this said there are years needed to coordinate and allow Casa Emma to become the wine it wants to be. Even at Annata level. Always at Annata level. Drink 2025-2030. Tasted February and May 2023

Fattoria Le Masse Chianti Classico DOCG 2019, San Donato In Poggio

Le Masse’s 2019 is San Donato in Poggio come into its own, the window wide open and the wine is showing colours vibrant, fresh and clearly visible. A biodynamically produced wine of soul and true identity. Salty and conversely sapid, in great harmony between acids and pH, ying-yang, AC/DC, plus or minus all that needs to offer pleasure and just enough structure for aging. Last tasted May 2023 Pure and ready, amenable and readable Annata here from Le Masse’s San Donato in Poggio vines, treated with utmost respect and for all the right reasons. This is textural sangiovese and quantities are so low you should count yourself lucky to secure just a bottle or two. Grace, understatement and charm are what this feels like are the things that comprise its beauty. Tasted February 2023 “To me, one of the best years for grapes,” tells winemaker Claudio Gozzi and the wood tank used for fermentation and now aging makes this noticeably a year wiser (than 2018) and so much more suitable to making this 100 per cent sangiovese. Even without tasting you can tell there’s a refinement, a calm and a settling that 2018 does not have. Cleaner, much more precision and seamless behaviour. Perfect volatility, sweet acidity and long, fine chains of tannin. Pure and honest, exacting, readier and will be just ideal with another year or so of time. Approximately 7,500 bottles produced. Drink 2022-2028. Tasted October 2021

Isole e Olena Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, San Donato In Poggio

All the schist-bled, favourable exposure gratified and experiential positioning has conspired to raise spirits for the season from Isole e Olena’s standard bearing and load carrying Annata. Hard to find a more exacting example for the cuvée style in which a few varieties in higher percentages than the increasing norm are gathered for what a Chianti Classico can and to be frank, should be. The most sapidity is expressed by way of a Paolo de Marchi Classico and few roll off the tongue like an Isole. As good as it gets for 2020. Drink 2024-2032. Tasted February and May 2023

Montecchio Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, San Donato In Poggio

Fullest sense of ripeness from 2020 that distinct blood orange note as strong as it gets for Montecchio. The estate right at the village is always consistent of a style for which 14 months in botti grande surely elasticizes and stretches the angles and lines of this persistent wine. Bigger than some vintages and yet also linear, rising and the peak will be reached in a year or three’s time. Drink 2024-2027. Tasted May 2023

Quercia al Poggio Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, San Donato In Poggio

Purely, allegedly and unequivocally San Donato in Poggio here from Quercia al Poggio and an estate that writes the book on frazione definition. Sweetly natural red fruit from plum and citrus, tight and tart acidity but also warmth if kept fresh by breezes blown through. Another quality sangiovese from Vittorio and Paola with spicy bits and accents contributed by four supporting indigenous varieties. Drink 2024-2028. Tasted February and May 2023

Le Filigare Chianti Classico DOCG 2021, San Donato In Poggio

Le Filigare is at the highest point in San Donato in Poggio, between 450 and 500, owned by Alessandra Casete-Burcchi. Dark fruit yet salty and surely a sangiovese come about as a factor of elevation and ocean breezes. Breezy and also a briny-kelp note that gives this Annata its umami finish. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted May 2023

Torcilaqua Chianti Classico DOCG 2020, San Donato In Poggio

Darker of fruit, savoury and notable salinity. Also great freshness but that pitchy and developed fruit does work the glass as much as the minerals, elements and natural acidities. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted May 2023

Masnaghetti and Godello