My Italophile friend Harri arranged a tasting of Radda wines yesterday. Radda is the hilliest of the Chianti Classico villages and Harri felt that the great differences in altitude make for a good variety of styles but with a core of more refreshing acidity than in other villages. Of the 32 growers in Radda we mostly tasted the terroir-oriented producers. We mostly had wines from the 2007 vintage - a hot and fruity year, but gladly one where at least most of these producers produced lively wines.
Podere Capaccia Chianti Classico 2007
A nice, lighter wine with a bit of delicious stink to the bright cherry fruit. Tannic but sweet and ripe. Fresh and refreshing. Nice!
Poggerino Chianti Classico 2007
A dark fruited, sweet and polished style of Chianti - I like a bit more rusticity and red tones, but as we saw later this evening with the 2004, Poggerino can develop into a beauty though I wasn't too keen on the younger one.
Castello di Radda Chianti Classico Riserva 2007
This was one of the few wines tonight that wasn't quite so terroir-oriented. Or maybe it was and it was mislabeled: it smelled pretty much like Chilean Cabernet. Not my thing at all.
Val delle Corti Chianti Classic 2008
97% Sangio, 3% Colorino. Val delle Corti is one of the few producers in the area to include stems. And I love the freshness that successful stemminess can bring. This bottle pulled it off brilliantly: bright aromas, pure and sexy, almost Burgundian, elegant. Bright and brilliantly acidic. Awesome. I have to find some of this.
Caparsa Chianti Classico Riserva "Caparsino" 2007
Stylish wine, quite similar aromatics to the Val delle Corti except darker in tone and not quite so fresh and lifted. Lovely tannins - this is a really palate cleansing wine despite the warm year fruit. Lovely.
Montevertine Chianti Classico Riserva 2007
Lovely, lighter coloured wine, yet intense aromatically with bright red fruit and a touch of delicious stink. Strangely soft, however. Sweet and ripe and perfectly adequately acidic, however I would have loved the levels of the Val delle Corti! Good stuff, anyways.
Castello di Volpaia Chianti Classico Riserva 2008
Voluptuous, slightly "Chilean" aroma of cassis. Not too keen.
Monteraponi Chianti Classico Riserva "Campitello" 2007
Blueberry juice and lactic aromas; sweet but with good structure. Not one of my favourites.
Poggerino Chianti Classico Riserva "Bugialla" 2006
Loamy, dark fruit, a bit anonymous and perhaps even a bit oaky though apparently mostly old wood is used. Good structure and perfectly drinkable but IMO at least now outclassed in this company.
Caparsa Chianti Classico Riserva "Doccio a Matteo" 2007
Lovely! Dark but tangy fruit; savoury, ripe and refreshing palate. Long and complex already though painfully young and intense. Classic style, certainly, and one of my favourites of the tasting.
Then it was time for dinner - thanks Harri for the great pasta! With the pasta we had a bottle of Poggerino Chianti Classico 2004 which was really lovely. Tangy, pretty classic aromas, not too polished like the 2007 still was. Good structure, refreshing though full bodied. Very nice!
Monteraponi Chianti Classico Riserva "Baron Ugo" 2007
Smells of loam, and despite some nice bright red fruit it ends up seeming a bit confected and "Chilean". Sweet but well structured; a bit of heat on the finish. Decent wine but outclassed in the company.
Montevertine Le Pergole Torte 2007
Loam and brightness; complex and elegant. Really lovely, racy, delineated palate. Classic and pure style of Sangiovese. Yeah, this is expensive stuff, but it is pretty awesome.
Castello di Volpaia Chianti Classico Riserva "Coltassala" 2007
Oaky, sweet and anonymous in this company.
Val delle Corti Chianti Classico Riserva 2007
Just as the CC 2007, this is stemmy and pulls it off beautifully. Outstanding intensity, lovely purity, high acidity. Fuck me this is good.
To finish off, a few blind wines and an open, older Montevertine:
Cosimo Maria Masini "Nicolo" 2004
A blind ringer, a blend of the two Cabernets. Dark fruit, very sweet, loamy; pretty soft palate, even a bit jammy. Hot year Sangiovese? 2003 Chianti? Couldn't be further from the truth. A bit of a disappointment since most of Cosimo Maria Masini's wines I have had are pretty awesome.
Montevertine Le Pergole Torte 1997
After the catastrophic 1997 Toscana tasting I posted on a few months back where even the big names expected to age were zombies it is a relief to drink a beautiful 1997 with structure and fruit to still develop. This was much like its younger self: a warm year wine that still retains beautiful purity, brightness and complexity and marries all of this refreshing character to sweet fruit (but not too sweet, I still like my Sangiovese with proper bite and these certainly had bite!). Lovely.
Podere le Boncie Chianti Classico "Le Trame" 2007
A blind wine. Loam, sweet and ripe fruit but of spectacular brightness and vivacity. Lovely, strong structure and proper bite. The 2002 of this wine is what finally made me like Sangiovese - a grape I used to have much trouble with. I am happy to see that even a warmer vintage of this wine is outstanding.
Massa Vecchia La Querciola 2008
From Maremma IIRC and ridiculously low yields - something 7-8 hl/ha. 80% Sangiovese and 20% Alicante (which here equals Grenache IIRC). Lovely, intense, very sweet fruit, more warm year in character than the Le Trame above. Ripe and sweet but very lively and refreshing. Pretty awesome stuff. A Bach to basics wine, "natural" but not in the freaky end of the spectrum, very polyphonic with strands of melody piling up on top of each other. Lovely.