I had this bottle last August. Bought by me on release and cellared the whole time. It was quite good (LS 92). It drank much younger than expected. Fwiw, my note is here: https://www.intowine.com/reviews/1997-antinori-chianti-classico-riserva-villa-antinori-italy-tuscany-wine-review
Not long after this wine was released they changed the makeup and started using grapes from outside Chianti and made the wine and IGT. Still a great value.
I had much better experience with e.g. Montevertine and Castell’In Villa than the top Brunello from 1970.- 1990 drunk at age 50-30
I don’t collect much Sangiovese, but I have a few relevant experiences.
Vinous did a large 2010 Brunello tasting back in October that I attended. The wines were solid, but there were a number that seemed ready to drink and a handful past peak, and these were a selection of the top wines from probably the best recent Brunello vintage. I would say the only wine in the tasting I would want to own in quantity for long-term aging was the Biondi Santi Riserva, which was stunning, very expressive but youthful with good depth of fruit and no signs of oxidation or secondary development yet. Some other wines were delicious like the Stella Riserva or the Cerbaiona 2010, but seem to be at their best right now, or maybe the Cerbaiona was better in the past would be my guess.
I attended a Biondi Santi dinner back in 2019, and the wines back to the late '60s were really good, although many of them were library releases. Frankly, none of the wines were mindblowing, a bit austere which I believe was the Biondi Santi style, but they definitely aged well. My take from those two experiences is that Biondi Santi is the one producer you can take to the bank, and the 2010 is a top notch wine.
I’ve had good experience with some of the better Chiantis or non-Brunello wines from Tuscany, specifically the Felsina Rancia and Fontodi Sorbo / Flaccianello. The Montevertine wines also seem clearly well suited for aging. Felsina Rancia '95 and '99 have been very good wines over the past year or so, and a 1990 Fontodi Sorbo remained powerful and concentrated when tasted back in 2020.
Basically, my limited experience is that Chianti and some other wines from Tuscany are more worthy of age than Brunello, with the exception of at least Biondi Santi.
At one time I had a bunch of different 1997 Chianti. I lived in Italy during it’s release. I had perhaps 2 dozen labels, many were fantastic. The one that I’d say was still on the upswing is Castello di Brolio Riserva. Most of the others were at best maybe 5-10 years ago.
Are you saying the older, supposedly inferior clones are showing better now with warmer vintages?
From a bottle we had in Italy, was drinking beautifully. Made me a believer in aging some of these CCs.
In many cases yes, generally due to lower yields, resultant higher alcohol and lower acidity. Some clones were also selected for small berry size, which in the era of high heat and no water can produce wines with outsized tannins.
That’s surprising about Cerbaiona, but I’ve never had an older one. Was Poggio di Sotto in the tasting? That seems to me to be one of the outliers (for Brunello) in that it can reward longer aging.
Supposedly the '10 is an outlier wine for Cerbaiona. I haven’t tasted other vintages, but my two experiences with the '10 were similar. My note below fwiw.
There was not a Poggio di Sotto. The surprise in the negative direction was Conti Costanti which was good, but seemed a bit past peak - the only bottle I’ve had, so hard to say if it was representative. The other wines that did not show well in my opinion were the modern style producers, Siro Pacenti and Casanova di Neri, where the wines had overly dark flavor profiles, lacking freshness, and the tannin quality was low. Other good performers to me were Salicutti, il Marroneto, and il Poggione.
The '10 Cerbaiona showed similarly to the prior time I’ve tasted it, in 2020. This is a very enjoyable Brunello, a bit funky but in a good way. It also has this combination of richness but elegance that the best wines have. That said, as I said in 2020, I don’t really understand AG’s 100 point score / the market price of this wine. The flavor profile is just a bit too rustic in my view for this to score at that level.
The nose was nicely perfumed with black fruit, violets, chocolate, leather, and roasted meats, a good mix of sweet dark fruit and slightly rustic, but attractive savory characteristics. On the palate, the wine is concentrated but very elegant, with no perceptible tannins to speak of at this point. I found leather, brown spices, chocolate, violets, and black fruits, leaning a bit savory but with a very attractive core of dark fruit. This wine has a textural richness that most of the other wines in this lineup lacked, but yet it’s so finessed.
Very interesting. Thanks.
I am very inexperienced in this area but a year or two ago I had a 2010 Felsina Riserva Rancia at about 12 years old and it felt quite young, like it had a decade or more to go.
I have just picked up a bottle each of the ‘00, ‘01, and ‘04 Baricci BdM. A fairly traditional producer. Looking forward to trying them this winter.
My notes on a bottle of the '97 opened ten years ago (i.e., 16 years out): “Tough sledding. Hard tannins, not much evolution. Needs more time??”
I haven’t touched my second bottle. I was concerned that the tannins were just too hard for this to ever come around. And I’m a Barolo guy. But I have no history with Rancia.
I’m sitting on some 04’s and 06’s. I opened one of each a few yrs ago, and they definitely needed more time.
Thanks for the info- very useful. I’ve had Caffaggio young, and I was a big fan. In fact, a young Caffaggio riserva was one an important part of my very early wine journey.
And yes of course- I would LOVE to get together for some aged Sangiovese. Let’s talk!
I actually just tried this wine, and liked it quite a bit. I didn’t think it was too hard, but it was a half bottle, which might have had an effect.
How much longer did you feel like it has to go? Beginning of its maturity or toward the middle or back end?
Oh, it had a long way to go. Still young- drinkable, but young. I’d bet there was at least another decade in the tank, even in half bottle.
