Tolaini Vigna Montebello Sette Chianti Classico Gran Selezione 2019
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Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Wine
Spectator - Decanter
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Enthusiast
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
This is a sensual wine with notes of cherry fruit, tobacco, leather and hints of licorice and spice. The elegant tannins balance nicely with the fruit, all underlined by a fabulous stratum of acidity, making this a complex wine with incontestable structure and power. A long and satisfying finish confirms this Sangiovese is true to its terroir.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made with 100% Sangiovese, the 2019 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Montebello Sette is a selection of fruit from a single vineyard with 22-year-old vines in characteristic clay soils with lots of rocks. The wine is redolent of dark fruit, baked plum, cinnamon and tarry spice. This vintage is especially tight and rich in terms of its concentration, and the wine closes with fine tannins over a full-bodied mouthfeel. The fresh acidity is another plus.
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James Suckling
A focused and very polished Chianti Classico with black cherry, crushed stone and mineral aromas and flavors. Medium to full body, firm tannins and a focused finish. Bark and berry character at the finish. Unfiltered. Firm and racy. A year or two will make it even better but I like the focus to this.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Equally generous (if not a bit more) in its perfume, the 2019 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Montebello Sette takes on a layer of wooded spice, with black cherry, vanilla bean, and scorched earth. It is persistent and drives through the palate with a rich core of red plum, orange rind, and dried Mediterranean herbs. There are building tannins and a long finish with drying earth and cedar remaining.
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Wine Spectator
A supple red, with flavors of macerated cherry and plum giving way to eucalyptus and Tuscan scrub details as this evolves on the palate. Reveals tannins that are on the firm side, finishing with a lightly astringent feel, so give this time. Best from 2025 through 2040. 665 cases made, 300 cases imported.
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Decanter
Crafted from a single vineyard of Sangiovese vines now in their third decade, Tolaini’s Gran Selezione ages in medium sized 25hl oak casks to allow fruit (rather than wood) to remain at the fore. It's still very youthful and slightly reductive, but clearly displays the dark fruit of Chianti Classico’s south. Blackcurrant and plum are plump and mouthfilling, while background nuances of moist earth, smoke and vanilla add intrigue. The tannins are vigorous but well-honed, lending appropriate power. This needs another year to mature into its complexity and specificity of place.
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Wine Enthusiast
The nose opens with vanilla and Bing cherry before umami aromas of graphite, leather and balsamic vinegar come through. Cherry-vanilla but also meaty, leathery notes on the palate are integrated well against firm tannins and perceptible acidity.
Other Vintages
2018-
Robert
Parker - Decanter
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Wine
Spectator -
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker -
Wine &
Spirits
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Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Enthusiast
Pierluigi Tolaini, a native of Tuscany, immigrated to Canada in 1956. He planned to work a few years, make some money, then go back home, buy a farm, marry his high school sweetheart and make some good wine... and not with his feet this time! It took Pierluigi 45 years before he returned with a clear vision of the high quality wine he wanted to make: one of Italy's best, no less. In 1998 he returned to his native land and purchased some of the best land in the region of Chianti Classico in the noted commune of Castelnuovo Berardenga. He constructed, from the roots up, this state-of-the-art winery and brought together the best technology and winemakers to bring to light wines that would be a true expression of this significant region. Pierluigi hired famed enologist Michel Rolland and Tuscan agronomist Andrea Paoletti, who put together a team that share Pierluigi's vision - to make the best wines possible with one vitally unique ingredient - the terroir of Chianti Classico's southern most commune: Castelnuovo Berardenga . A true marriage of tradition and modern technology. The belief in the "best fruit produces the best wine" is the fundamental principal of the Tolaini estate. High density planting per hectare and low yield per plant is a proven strategy worldwide in producing excellent quality fruit. With up to 11,500 plants per hectare in the less hilly vineyards, drip irrigation for each plant, and two green harvests to pre-select the healthiest and most promising bunches on the vine, the Tolaini property produces fruit of unsurpassable quality. This fruit is evident in every mouthful of the estate's four incredible red wines.
Ruggero Mazzilli is Tolaini's consulting agronomist and is based in Gaiole in Chianti where he is the owner and founder of SPEVIS (The Experimental Station for Sustainable Viticulture). Under Ruggero's supervision Panzano in Chianti became the first Bio-Distretto (Organic District) in the world, immediately followed by San Gimignano and Gaiole in Chianti. SPEVIS works with the best scientific research institutes to find new solutions to practical vineyard issues by following the principles of organic agriculture and respectful environmental practices. With Ruggero as part of the team, Tolaini will continue to cultivate the maximum expression of Chianti Classico terroir while farming organically and sustainably.
Like the vineyards surrounding it, the winery at Tolaini Estate is an expression of both old and new. An optical sorter guarantees that only the healthy whole grapes make it into the fermentation vats. The best grapes from each harvest are fermented in open-top fermenters made of French Allier oak (12 units of 4500 liter capacity), a time-proven touch that increases the complexity in the wines. The generous array of tank sizes allows for individual parcels of grapes to be fermented and stored separately. These batches are kept apart through subsequent barrel aging in new French oak before blending. Today Luca D'Attoma is the consulting oenologist and his hand is apparent starting with the 2015 vintage of Tolaini.
Tolaini wines are known internationally for their impeccable quality and incredible taste. With each new vintage they continue to innovate and impress.
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.