Isole e Olena Vin Santo del Chianti Classico (375ML half-bottle) 2010
-
Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Deep amber in color. Intense, rich, complex, nutty fruit on the nose, giving way to a similar intensity and concentration on the palate with dried fruits, including dried apricots and candied orange peel. Great balance and length.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This wine is a labor of love made only by the most tenacious and passionate producers in Tuscany. The Isole e Olena 2010 Vin Santo del Chianti Classico (in a 375-milliliter bottle) is beautifully balanced and offers a rush of candied fruit aromas and honey with hints of the smoky elegance that comes with time. On top of apricot, brown sugar and maple syrup, this Vin Santo offers unique complexity with aniseed, beeswax and toasted cardamom pod. The mouthfeel is equally finessed with a soft texture and, surprise, a wonderful dose of freshness. That acidity is the wine's ace card. This is one of the best Vin Santos I have tasted.
-
James Suckling
This is beautiful with dried peaches, dried persimmons, baklava, dried blood orange and toasted almonds with yeasty notes. Full and opulent and delicious. The sweetness is in perfect harmony with the vivid acidity. Full of energy and fruit. Some chocolate at the end with saffron and exotic spices. Drink or hold.
-
Wine Spectator
This dessert-style white delivers honey, caramel, clove, horehound and butterscotch aromas and flavors. Lush and toasty, with vivid acidity and an aftertaste of roasted walnut. Features fine complexity and length. Trebbiano and Malvasia. Drink now through 2038.
Founded in 1956 by Francesco De Marchi, this historic Chianti Classico estate is located in the western part of the denomination, near Castellina in Chianti, in the commune of Barberina Val d’Elsa. Isole e Olena’s 56 hectares (138 acres) of vineyards sit at 350-450 meters (1,148 – 1,476 feet) above sea level on soils of galestro and marly schist.
In 1975, Francesco’s son, Paolo De Marchi, ushered in a new era at Isole e Olena by taking over the estate. With his background in agricultural studies, Paolo started to revolutionize the winery beginning in the vineyards. He began experiments with the clear goal of enhancing the quality of the region, improving the performance of the local grape varieties (mainly Sangiovese) through massal selection, and mapping his galestro-driven soils. Thanks to the philosophy of Paolo De Marchi, Isole e Olena is considered among the pioneer estates who led the quality renaissance of Chianti Classico starting in the 1970s and becoming a reference for the area.
1980 saw the first bottling of Cepparello, a pure Sangiovese from old vines, aged in barrique, which in time has become an emblem of Isole e Olena. First classified as “vino da tavola” (table wine) it went on to become one of the first Supertuscan wines, showing the character and longevity of Sangiovese from this high-altitude corner of Chianti Classico. Cepparello is the result of Paolo’s extensive study of the Sangiovese grape and his belief in the potential of its expression.
Today Isole e Olena is recognized for the leading role it played in the emergence of the Chianti Classico region and respected for its authentic style of Chianti Classico – fragrant and well-balanced with purity of fruit – which is representative of its high-altitude territory. In addition to Chianti Classico and Cepparello, Isole e Olena also produces a series of single varietal wines: Chardonnay, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as an acclaimed Vin Santo.
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
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.