2018 Podere Il Palazzino Chianti Classico Argenina

2018 Podere Il Palazzino Chianti Classico Argenina

2018 Podere Il Palazzino Chianti Classico Argenina is a total knockout. Bright, aromatic and silky, the 2018 is pure class. Crushed flowers, mint, spice, licorice, tobacco and incense are some of the notes that grace this exquisite Chianti Classico. When I taste the best wines here, I often wonder why more producers aren’t capable of this level of quality. Stellar.  Vinous Media: 93 Points

Among Italy’s elite red grape varieties, Sangiovese has the perfect intersection of bright red fruit and savory earthiness and is responsible for the best red wines of Tuscany. While it is best known as the chief component of Chianti, it is also the main grape in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and reaches the height of its power and intensity in the complex, long-lived Brunello di Montalcino. Somm Secret—Sangiovese doubles under the alias, Nielluccio, on the French island of Corsica where it produces distinctly floral and refreshing reds and rosés.

If Piedmont is the soul of Italian wine, Tuscany is its beating heart––and the wine world has fallen in love. Sangiovese, Italy’s most planted grape, has experienced a bit of a roller-coaster ride in production quality over the last century—it’s like a Phoenix that has risen from the ashes of jugged swill wines, popular in American restaurants throughout the 1970s, to the incredible expressions of Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino that we know today.

Improved clonal selection in Tuscany is partially to thank for the grape’s renaissance , as are hillside vineyard sites that take full advantage of the region’s warm, direct sunlight.

Tuscany is vast, from coastal Maremma to the hills of Chianti to rocky Montalcino; altogether it hosts 42 DOCs and 11 DOCGs. “Super Tuscans” were originally created, quite deliberately outside DOC guidelines, in order to incorporate international varieties in blends (like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot), have become another Tuscan signature wine, and now run the gamut from everyday blends to high-priced icons like Sassicaia.