10 top Chianti Classico 2021

I would like to tell you about the 650 or so tastings I did at the Chianti Classico Consortium, including Black Roosters and great red wines. I give you here a series of suggestions by telling you what were the best tastings, in my opinion of course, for the 2021 vintage, which is excellent, but which today is expressed only through the so-called “base” wines, so not Reserves and not Grand Selections that will come out later.

Formidable vintage, and already with these wines we can see what we might find in a couple of years in the bottles of their big brothers. That said, let’s enjoy them for the moment, they are delicious and frankly not having who knows what assets in the sun, they are the ones that can give considerable satisfaction without making our credit card melt away.

Badia a Coltibuono

La Badia is in the upper part of Gaiole, but the vineyards are in Monti in Chianti, and the warmth of the southern part of the district is evident. It is a thick Chianti Classico, mighty but not heavy. Very typical.

• Chianti Classico 2021

Bibbiano

It is one of Castellina‘s landmark areas; we are a stone’s throw from Fizzano and not far from San Fabiano Calcinaia, in an area that looks westward and almost feels the last breaths of the wind coming in from the sea. Composed and powerful, but not lacking in agility.

• Chianti Classico 2021

Carpineta Fontalpino

We are in the southern part of Castelnuovo Berardenga, and here the Chianti Classico wines are soft, full-bodied, enveloping but not heavy. Very Sienese.

• Chianti Classico Fontalpino 2021

Querceto Castle

The Sugame Pass that divides Chianti Classico from Valdarno is right here, and this is one of the most extreme areas in the district. The result is agile, long-lived, almost bony wines with gangly tannins, somewhat Biondi Santi-like.

• Chianti Classico 2021

Istine

A delight in Radda, one of the happiest wineries for interpreting the possible edginess that is pragmatic in these parts. Yet here in Istine they perform a small miracle. Perfect vineyards and above all a great ability to make dynamic wines with delicious drinkability.

• Chianti Classico 2021

Nittardi

La Piazza is the northernmost area of the Castellina district, and from there it seems to touch the houses of Panzano, In between is the border between Siena and Florence, thus between two worlds and also between types of Chianti Classico. Léon Femfert, owner of Nittardi, interprets his wines with Florentine elegance, Sienese power and Germanic culture.

• Chianti Classico Belcanto 2021

Prince Corsini Villa Le Corti

A Classic of Chianti Classico. Giulio Gambelli and Giacono Tachis, who are no longer with us, would have praised its “palatality,” that is, its balance and soft envelopment, or persuasiveness, as it used to be called.

• Chianti Classico Le Corti 2021

Querciabella

Absolute outlier. We are in Ruffoli, the eastern part of the Greve district, and also one of the highest parts of the area. Opposite is Lamole, but this is the opposite side. A wine of extraordinary character, complex and multifaceted.

• Chianti Classico 2021

Riecine

Once there was John Dunkley, a legendary producer, among the very first, if not the first, to reach Chianti Classico from England. There remain great wines from high Gaiole that remind us of him and recall his elegant and refined style.

• Chianti Classico 2021

Tolaini

Between Castelnuovo Berardenga and Vagliagli. You can see Siena from here, and the wines recall the warmth and richness of the great reds from there. Lia Banville interprets everything with determination and skill.

• Chianti Classico 2021