Sangiovese, Toscana, Italy

Paolo Cianferoni crafts intensely soulful, deliciously distinctive sangiovese in the hills of Radda, at the heart of Chianti Classico. In 1982 he took over his father’s centuries-old farmhouse, along with a dozen hectares of vines surrounded by woods. He works mainly with sangiovese, much of it from old vines – not a drop of merlot or cabernet here! The farming is organic, and the cellar work is decidedly low-tech and natural. Fermentation with indigenous yeasts and aging take place in concrete tanks and large wooden casks in their old cellars. The wines are bottled with minimal sulphur and the Chianti Classicos are released only after further aging to soften sangiovese’s firm tannins and allow the aromatics to deepen. Paolo’s wines could not be further from the generic, mass-produced, and heavily manipulated wine that too often passes for Chianti. These are wines with deep fruit and a range of savoury aromas and flavours that seems to change constantly in the glass, married with firm structure that makes them naturals at the dinner table. We highly recommend these wines to those who want to know what real Chianti Classico is all about. While Caparsa is best known for their late released Chianti Classico Riservas, they also make this fresh, joyous pure sangiovese from the organically-farmed vines surrounding their idyllic farmhouse in Radda. It fermented with wild yeasts and aged only in concrete tanks. This wine showcases the vibrant, deliciously crunchy red fruit of high-altitude Radda sangiovese, and reminds us a lot of the wild cherries that grow in the middle of the vineyard, seasoned with Tuscan herbs and stones. Its bright acidity and a touch of chalky tannin make it a wonderful partner for food, but its medium-bodied freshness make it dangerously easy to drink all on its own.