2013 Le Miccine, Chianti Classico Riserva, Tuscany Italy.
The 2013 Le Miccine Riserva is a seamless and stylish Sangiovese with dense richness of the vintage, but still vibrant and wonderfully detailed, not all oaked up or international, like some of the more modern contemporaries, it’s a full bodied wine that delivers terroir, personality and class. From selected blocks of sloping vines and using six different Sangiovese clones, the Riseva from Le Miccine is fermented with gentile extraction and aged in both big cask and smaller barrels, most all used French. The Riesrva is deeply colored and intense in the glass with lovely pure aromatics starting with dried violets, cedar, red berries and mineral notes leading to a thickly layered palate of precise flavors, it shows blackberry, mulberry, plum, black cherry and tangy currant fruits along with spicy/earthy/savory elements including nutmeg, forest truffle, allspice, sweet tobacco leaf, lavender, loamy stones as well as light wood notes. The depth and finish are gorgeous here, the fruit is ripe and lush, without being heavy, the mouth feel is seductive as is the silkiness of the tannins, most of this is from careful craftsmanship and serve selection from winemaking talent Paula Papini Cook, but also it reflects the warm vintage that blessed this part of Tuscany, especially the cooler hills around Gaiole where Le Miccine is in Chianti Classico. There’s an inner energy and verve which is just sublime that really drives this charming wine that heightens the pleasure, truly beautiful stuff this. This is a Classico estate to get really excited about, if you’ve not had these wines yet, you need to check them out, Le Miccine is all organic and sits in it’s own hillside micro climate, and Papini Cook’s efforts so far have been brilliant, she crafts tiny amounts of this all estate Chianti Classico Riserva, as well as the Chianti Classico, which is a field blend of Sangiovese, Colorino and Malvasia Nera, it’s also a stunner and a great value, plus a rare 100% single plot Merlot, like Castello di Ama, which is from old vines, I tasted the first vintage of this one a few years back and it was highly impressive. Le Miccine also has a small amount of Vermentino, but I’ve not been able to get this yet in the States, though I believe there will be a limited release in the future and maybe even a Rose, but regardless, Le Miccine is a rising star and the 2013 Riserva is a fantastic wine, lingering with kirsch, strawberry and minty anise it deserves your attention as well as serious Tuscan cuisine, drink over the next 5 to 10 years.
($34 Est.) 95 Points, grapelive
