Monteraponi Chianti Classico Il Campitello Riserva 2019
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Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The wine is garnet-red colored. Intense spicy and red fruity notes on the nose. One is immediately impressed by the wine’s power and strength. The marly and clayey soil lends the wine remarkable savoriness and persistence. The tertiary notes, of aromatic herbs blended with Spanish broom and fennel, are typical of the Chianti Classico zone. High acidity, due to the winery’s altitude, which ensures ageing potential.
The fine but firm tannins make this wine the perfect pair with traditional Tuscan meat-based dishes, such as game.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The organic Monteraponi 2019 Chianti Classico Riserva Il Campitello is a beautiful wine that expresses itself elegantly, thanks to balanced fruit, good concentration and well-dosed intensity. The wine is a blend of 90% Sangiovese, 5% Colorino and 5% Canaiolo with berries from 55-year-old vines on a mix of schistous galestro and limestone alberese soils. It offers a noticeably darker appearance with aromas of pressed blackberry, button mushroom and blue flower. This Riserva maintains a wild but delicate personality throughout, with a spot of crushed white pepper in a distant background role.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The dark ruby/magenta 2019 Chianti Classico Riserva Il Campitello is forward with mineral aromas of wet stone, black cherry, and fresh sage. Medium to full-bodied, it saturates the palate with ripe tannins and a long, earthy finish. This age-worthy wine from Monteraponi will benefit from another two or more years in bottle.
Disenchanted with Italian winemaking laws in the 1970s, a few rebellious Tuscan winemakers decided to get creative. Instead of following tradition, to bottle Sangiovese by itself, they started blending it with international varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah in differing proportions and with amazing success. However, some Tuscan Blends don’t even include Sangiovese. Somm Secret—The suffix –aia in Italian modifies a word in much the same way –y acts in English. For example, a place with many stones (sassi) becomes Sassicaia. While not all Super Tuscan producer names end in –aia, they all share a certain coy nomenclature.
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.