The classic defies climate change

Any winegrower who is old enough can testify to how rapidly growing conditions are changing due to climate change. Budding is starting earlier and earlier, which increases the risk of frost damage; there is either a lack of water or warm and humid weather, resulting in massive disease pressure; the sugar levels in the berries sometimes rise so quickly that flavour ripening can barely keep up. Harvesting has to take place much earlier and therefore usually at higher temperatures than usual, which brings its own problems. "Normal" vintages almost no longer exist. Winegrowers have no choice but to adapt to the changed situation.

This also applies to Chianti Classico. Although the situation is more favourable for the relatively high-altitude region with its strong forest stands that moderate the climate than in other Mediterranean wine regions, the changes are clear here too. We notice this not least in the wines. Whereas 20 years ago alcohol levels of 14% and more were the exception, today they are the rule. But many winegrowers are taking countermeasures, and the indigenous grape varieties in particular seem to be helping them by adapting to the changed conditions.

The results speak for themselves: we were amazed at how many elegant, fresh, concentrated and multi-layered wines we had on the table. Many of the best winegrowers succeed in giving their Chianti all the substance, variety of flavours and structure that an excellent wine needs, without overdoing it with maturity and alcohol. Even with their Gran Selezione, some manage to stay below the 14 per cent mark without the wines lacking anything, quite the opposite. And even much stronger examples often have tension and freshness thanks to the Sangiovese and its natural acidity. As long as this is possible, we won't be worried about one of the most beautiful wine regions in the world.

We have tasted around 300 Chianti Classico wines of all classes over the past few weeks. The majority of the wines come from the 2022 to 2019 vintages, with the focus increasingly shifting to higher classes as the samples get older: While only annates from 2022 were tasted, there are almost none from 2019. Many of the even older Chianti wines come from our own archive, from which we regularly include control samples in current tasting series to see how they develop - and whether we were right in our assessments at the time. However, some of the earlier vintages were also submitted fresh by the producers, mostly to demonstrate their ability to develop. Only a few of them are likely to still be on sale today.

We have only been able to taste just under 20 annatas from the 2022 vintage so far, so it is still too early to make a meaningful assessment. In any case, the weather was favourable. Although it was warm to hot in summer from June onwards, the rainfall in spring and mid-August prevented drought stress.

Things are more mixed with the 21s. Here, too, there was sufficient rainfall in spring, but this was followed by several weeks without a drop of water. In addition, a cold snap after Easter led to significant differences in ripening development between warmer and cooler areas. Location, soil and the age of the vines were decisive factors for the final result. Our tasting experiences varied accordingly: we were delighted with some of the Annate wines, while others seemed a little brittle and some even slightly green. We are curious to see how the Riserve and Gran Selezione fare, of which very few have been produced to date.

2020 is considered an excellent year in Tuscany, thanks to sufficient spring rainfall, a summer without excessive temperatures and ideal conditions during the harvest. Our results prove this right with an abundance of excellent wines in all categories. The finesse, elegance and precision of many top wines, which one would hardly dare to hope for in times of annual heat records, is particularly remarkable. There were problems above all where the ripeness, extraction or use of wood was exaggerated.

The same applies to 2019, even if the qualities seem to fluctuate a little more than in 2020. However, this may also be due to the wine selection, because if we look at the 2019s tasted in previous years, we see a selection of great wines that is hardly less impressive. The top wines are once again precise, fresh, firm and juicy in all classes.

We only tasted a few latecomers from the 2018 vintage, which, unlike many other regions, was rainy instead of too dry in Tuscany and was only saved by a sunny September, as well as from the older vintages. It is definitely worth referring back to our earlier tasting reports.

Below are the best of all the wines currently tasted, as well as links to all the Chianti Classico wines rated and their producers, sorted by vintage and classification.