2015 Le Miccine, Chianti Classico, Gran Selezione, Giaole in Chianti, Tuscany, Italy.
Paula Papini Cook’s fantastic 2015 Gran Selezione Chianti Classico, her top estate bottling, is wonderfully pure, richly dense and smooth in structure, highlighting the ripe and opulent vintage in the region, showing beautiful dark berries and floral aromatics along with sweet and savory elements, including tobacco leaf, cedar, dried Turkish fig and anise that all linger on and on. With some air in the glass this dark garnet and crimson Sangiovese opens further and becomes even more compelling adding kirsch, lilacs, plum, strawberry and currant to the full bodied palate, all of which gives this wine an incredible sense of completeness and makes for an excellent companion for the evening, especially brilliant with meat dishes, pasta and or firm pecorino cheese. This Gran Selezione by Le Miccine is everything you’d want in a premium example of the region’s main grape Sangiovese. Paula Papini Cook has really turned Le Miccine, her grandparents ancient estate, into one of Chianti’s best and desirable labels with lovely set of hand crafted wines from vineyards she farms with all organic methods.
The Le Miccine Chianti Classico Gran Selezione comes from, as Papini Cooks explains, a premium selection of grapes from a single vineyard on the estate in the Tuscan hillsides of the Giaole in Chianti zone. This wine saw a very different program than the regular Chianti Classico, it was made exclusively from 100% Sangiovese, with none of the other local grapes and it was aged 30 months in oak barrels, more like a Brunello, with an extra 6 months in bottle before release. There are a whole new set rules for these Gran Selezione Chianti Classicos, with the minimum requirement for Sangiovese has been increased to 90%, from 80%, and there cannot be an international varietals in the blend, only allowing the remaining 10% to grapes that are native to the Chianti Classico area, namely Canaiolo, Colorino, Malvasia Nera and Mammolo, plus a couple other extremely rare varietals. As well as that there now are 11 special permitted subzones, or cru like historically recognized towns and regions, that can be used on the labels, these include now the formally designated Unità Geografiche Aggiuntive(s) of Castellina, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Gaiole, Greve, Lamole, Montefioralle, Panzano, Radda, San Casciano, San Donato in Poggio and Vagliagli.
($55 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive