The good news right from the start: the average quality of Chianti Classico has probably never been as good as it is today. It is only a little surprising that the wines of this DOCG, which is one of the oldest clearly defined regions of origin, often seem to have no clear lineage, no identity-forming common features. Regardless of their quality, many Chianti Classico wines could just as well come from the Bordelais, the south of France, southern Italy, Spain or Australia.
 |
| Landscape in Chianti Classico (Photo: Consorzio Chianti Classico) |
But here, too, the trend seems to be slowly moving in a different direction. After the use of new wood, even in the Riserve, began to be significantly reduced some time ago, the wines of many producers are now becoming ever finer and more elegant and are thus once again approaching the image of the delicate yet characterful food companion that we like to have of a Chianti Classico.
One should be careful with the storage of Chianti Classico: many wines develop quickly and should rather be drunk young, among them also some Riserve, which are by no means always better than the Annate from the same house. In the best wineries, however, you will find Annate that can age for several years and Riserve for which even a decade of ageing is no hurdle. Many of the extremely modern, rather homeless, dark, often woody examples can also be impressive in their way after many years of ageing, but they just never taste like Chianti Classico.
 |
| The Gallo Nero ("Black Rooster") is the trademark of the Consorzio del Marchio Storico Chianti Classico% whose members produce around 80 percent of the Chinati Classico. (Photo: Consorzio Chianti Classico) |
In total, we tasted around 250 wines for this BEST OF.
To the "BEST OF Chianti Classico" (PDF document)
All currently tasted Chianti Classico DOCG
To the magazine article "Banged-up hope for a new flowering"
More about the wines of the Chianti Classico also in the Genuss-Magazin