On the Road with the Grape Guy
Report from : Chianti Classico Anteprima 2020
11 Aug 2020- Details
- Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy
(February 2020) – Tuscany … Seems like it has been forever since I went to this tasting in Florence, Italy – and I do miss the country so much, it is true that absence makes the heart grow fonder; but now let’s look at step one of this tasting and the reason we are all there – to taste the newest vintage of Chianti Classico.
This year 198 wineries participated and 480 wines were on display: 214 Chianti Classico, 153 Chianti Classico Riserva and 113 Gran Selezione. Vintages ranged from the 2018 Chianti Classico to a 2007 Riserva. The tasting occurs over the course of two days during the Chianti Classico Anteprima 2020. It is the largest organized tasting of the week.
Having focused for many years on the current vintage this year I shifted my focus, looking mainly at the Riserva and Gran Selezione … for the Annata wines I wanted to get a snap-shot of the vintage and tasted about 25% of them – as opposed to 100% of the Gran Selezione and 80% of the Riserva (reports for each can be found separately) – and will be linked to the bottom of this post once ready.
2018 seems a drinkable but not very impressive vintage … that said it comes after some pretty stellar vintages like the 2015 and 2016, even 2017 was a lovely vintage (though it did have its challenges). The 2018s are a scattershot and one has to be familiar with the producer and their style to be comfortable with what is in the bottle.
Interesting to note that the majority of the Chianti Classicos were from the tasty 2017 vintage (96 wines) – and those looking for drink-early Chianti should be looking at 2017, while they rest their 2016 and even their 2015 … the 2018 still need another year in bottle to fully integrate and hopefully at next year’s Anteprima we’ll have a better idea of what is happening in these bottles.
Below is a list of the wines that truly represented, to me, the best of the Chianti Classico DOCG wines I tasted (in alphabetical order by producer / by star rating) – everything rated is a “finished” wine; “unfinished” or barrel samples are rated for potential on a Good/Better/Best scale and can be found under the star rated wines:
(All scoring is out of 5 stars)
Chianti Classico were a range of
2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 (DOCG) …
Three and a Half Stars …
Cantina Castelvecchi 2017 Chianti Classico “Capotondo”
Castelli del Grevepesa 2017 Chianti Classico “Clemente VII”
Castello Vicchiomaggio 2018 Chianti Classico “Guado Alto”
Conti Capponi 2017 Chianti Classico “Villa Calcinaia”
Felsina 2018 Chianti Classico “Berardenga”
I Sodi 2017 Chianti Classico
Isole e Olena 2017 Chianti Classico
Lamole di Lamole 2017 Chianti Classico
Ottomani 2017 Chianti Classico
Podere L’Aja 2016 Chianti Classico
Poggio Bonelli 2017 Chianti Classico
Tolaini 2018 Chianti Classico “Vallenuova”
Vignamaggio 2017 Chianti Classico “Terre di Prenzano”
Three and a Half Plus Stars …
Banfi 2018 Chianti Classico “Fonte alla Selva”
Carpineto 2018 Chianti Classico
Monteraponi 2018 Chianti Classico
Nardi Viticoltori 2017 Chianti Classico
Rocca delle Macie 2018 Chianti Classico “Famiglia Zingarelli”
Four Stars … 
Podere L’Aja 2016 Chianti Classico “Chielle”
Terreno 2016 Chianti Classico “ASofia”
Barrel Samples …
Good / Better / Best
Brancaia 2018 Chianti Classico … (BETTER)
Fattoria Carpineta Fontalpino 2018 Chianti Classico “Dofana” … (GOOD)
Fattoria Carpineta Fontalpino 2018 Chianti Classico “Montaperto” … (BETTER)
I Fabbri 2018 Chianti Classico “Lamole” … (BETTER)
Isole e Olena 2018 Chianti Classico … (BEST)
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Links to the other reports in this series …
Report from : Chianti Classico Riserva - Anteprima 2020
Report from : Chianti Classico Gran Selezione - Anteprima 2020
