When tasting the current Chianti Classico vintages, one gets the impression that terroir is becoming increasingly important with climate change. The region, with its relatively high-altitude vineyards on average, its large proportion of woodland and the very different geographical and microclimatic conditions, often has different responses to the respective vintage conditions than expected.

The best example is the 2022 vintage, one of the hottest since weather records began. Many initial reactions sounded sceptical due to the high ripeness and present, sometimes initially brittle tannins. In the meantime, it turns out that the conditions of the vintage were less detrimental to the Chianti Classico than initially feared.

In any case, we were quite amazed at how juicy and balanced the wines were, even at high alcohol levels. They were rarely inferior to the sometimes highly praised 2021s, and in some cases even surpassed them. Especially those 2021s with very high alcohol levels often come across as somewhat exaggerated and not very harmonious.

In this cooler year, the winners were mostly those producers who focussed primarily on finesse and did not try to extract more power than nature freely gave them. At higher alcohol levels, the 2022s appear much more natural in comparison, while the cooler 2021 style had its clear advantages. The best 2021 wines are even reminiscent of legends from vintages such as 1985, 1988 or 1990, a time when the much warmer, juicy and powerful style of the 2022s practically did not yet exist.

2023, on the other hand, was considered a fairly balanced vintage from the outset. Although the summer was hot and dry here too, the winter and spring brought sufficient water. Nevertheless, we missed freshness and elegance in some of the wines. Based on our experience with the 2022 wines, however, we are cautious in our final assessment of the vintage, especially as we are still missing most of the Riserve and Gran Selezione. Our first impressions of the 2024s, on the other hand, were promising due to their transparency and juiciness.

We have currently tasted around 200 Chianti Classico wines, the best of which we present here. You will find links to all the wines and their producers at the end of each list.