Anteprima – BKWine goes to Italy to taste Chianti Classico

By Åsa Johansson, BKWine’s reporter in Italy

BKWine recently participated in the annual tasting of to-be-released Chianti Classico wines. The tasting is held in Florence in February every year in an ex-railway station called Stazione Leopolda, a beautiful setting for a wine tasting. 148 producers were presenting their wines to the trade and press, showing more than 358 different samples.

The vintages on show were Chianti Classico Reserva 2006 (at least 24 months aging before release), and Chianti Classico 2007 (can be sold after October 1 the year following the harvest). Some 70 producers also brought tank/barrel samples of the 2008. (It will be released at the earliest the coming autumn.)

The 2008s were very promising. The growing season was excellent and very healthy grapes were brought in at the harvest, with good levels of acidity and good quality. What remains is that the winemakers nurture the infant wines to a finished wine before anyone can really declare it to be “an outstanding vintage”.

Here is our pick of producers to look out for:

Castellinuzza e Piuca
A very small winery with only 2 ha at 300 metres altitude not far from Greve in Chianti. Giuliano Coccia, the father, and Simone, the son, stick to the local traditional grape varieties, such as sangiovese, canaiolo and colorino. Winemaking is also traditional indeed, in concrete vats and with no barrel aging. This results in a splendidly drinkable food wine with plenty of fruit that, without being overly complex, will give you pleasure at the table.

Villa di Geggiano
They farm their vines organically. They only make a Chianti Classico in years when they consider the fruit and quality to be sufficiently good and rather skip a vintage than make an average wine. Chianti Classico Geggiano is made from 90-95% sangiovese with a small addition of cabernet. The wine is aged in ‘tonneau’ (500 litre barrels) for 18 months. An elegant and complex wine to drink for example with game or matured cheese.

Fattoria Le Filigare
They make a wide range of wines. Filigare’s Chianti Classico is excellent value for money. The owner, Carlo Burchi, explains that one of his biggest problems is that he has named his wines after all his grand-children and there are more and more of them. He has run out of cuvees and don’t know what to do for the youngest grand-daughter…

-Åsa Johanson, BKWine's reporter in Italy

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