Castello di Ama Chianti Classico San Lorenzo Gran Selezione 2011
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Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has a dusty character on the nose with soil, dried fruit and blueberry. Flowers too. Full body, firm tannins and a fresh finish. Tight and structured. Shows wonderful depth of fruit and beauty. Chewy. Better in 2016.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
One of the finest Chianti Classicos in the marketplace, the sophisticated and elegant 2011 Castello di Ama Chianti Classico San Lorenzo Gran Selezione exhibits an enticing mix of focused red fruits, attractive earthy notes, and aromatic herbs. Drinks nicely now. (Tasted: August 29, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
Elegant and structured, this offers aromas that suggest sunbaked earth, ripe woodland berry, chopped mint and a whiff of new leather. The taut, polished palate offers juicy black cherry, ripe raspberry, orange peel, anise and grilled herb alongside austere, fine-grained tannins that give it a firm finish. Drink 2018–2023.
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Wine Spectator
Broad and intense, exhibiting floral, cherry, rhubarb, leather and almond notes. Well-knit and vibrant, with a compact finish. Should stretch out nicely. Best from 2016 through 2026.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione San Lorenzo is loaded tight with ripe fruit nuances of strawberry, black fruit and prune. San Lorenzo shows a riper, jammy quality of fruit next to Vigneto Bellavista. But, like that other Gran Selezione expression, this wine excels in terms of mouthfeel with polished tannins and a great sense of energy and momentum.
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Among Italy's elite red grape varieties, Sangiovese has the perfect intersection of bright red fruit and savory earthiness and is responsible for the best red wines of Tuscany. While it is best known as the chief component of Chianti, it is also the main grape in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and reaches the height of its power and intensity in the complex, long-lived Brunello di Montalcino. Somm Secret—Sangiovese doubles under the alias, Nielluccio, on the French island of Corsica where it produces distinctly floral and refreshing reds and rosés.
One of the first wine regions anywhere to be officially recognized and delimited, Chianti Classico is today what was originally defined simply as Chianti. Already identified by the early 18th century as a superior zone, the official name of Chianti was proclaimed upon the area surrounding the townships of Castellina, Radda and Gaiole, just north of Siena, by Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany in an official decree in 1716.
However, by the 1930s the Italian government had appended this historic zone with additonal land in order to capitalize on the Chianti name. It wasn’t until 1996 that Chianti Classico became autonomous once again when the government granted a separate DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) to its borders. Ever since, Chianti Classico considers itself no longer a subzone of Chianti.
Many Classicos are today made of 100% Sangiovese but can include up to 20% of other approved varieties grown within the Classico borders. The best Classicos will have a bright acidity, supple tannins and be full-bodied with plenty of ripe fruit (plums, black cherry, blackberry). Also common among the best Classicos are expressive notes of cedar, dried herbs, fennel, balsamic or tobacco.