This is the debut vintage for Riecine’s single-field spruce selection of 100% sangiovese; and what a debut! 2019 is an excellent vintage in Tuscany with both substance, elegance and freshness.
Riecine is a small, organic top producer located in Gaiole with chianti classico’s highest situated fields. Winemaker since the 2016 vintage, Alessandro Campatelli, has taken the wines up a notch with less cask pressure and more clarity in expression – expertly helped along by assistant oenologist, Carlo Ferrini.
Vigna Gittori is located at an altitude of 500 meters between Riecine and Gaiole town, densely planted with 50-year-old sangiovese vines. In 2019, Riecine bought the field after renting it for 20 years. It is exceptionally limestone with a high content of iron oxide and, due to the low content of organic material, is very little productive.
The grapes were hand-harvested and double-sorted in September and into October, then gently de-stemmed and filled into an open ‘Nomblot’ concrete vat. The weight of the upper grapes crushes the skins of the lower ones, where the alcoholic fermentation in the form of macaration carbonique begins by itself after three to four days. After approx. 14 days of fermentation and a further 25 days of maceration, the virgin wine is pressed and the vintage’s modest approx. 2,500 liters aged 24 months in four-year-old French oak tonneau, followed by half a year in bottle until release.
The wine is the essence of sangiovese with ethereal cherries, strawberries, cranberries, potpourri, iodine; held together nicely in a floating style with gravelly minerals, a straight acidity and amazingly gentle, fine tannins.
In a liberating way, this top model is not about teddy bear monster fruit but about finesse. If you want power in tightly woven bordeaux style with sexy Tuscan curves, the alternatives are countless. If you give the wine time and attention, if you have the right wine humor, you will treasure its feminine, airy style, which belongs in the same category as good burgundy, while the price for a similar quality is only so far!
Since it is the first version of the wine, one must be careful with chrome-plated promises of durability, but it can be noted that Riecine’s other wines are both long-lasting and worthy of storage.
Enjoyed in good, spacious glasses, served at 15-18°.
Wine & Spirits Magazine voted it the best spruce selection in the vintage and wrote so nicely about it that you almost blush:
“Riecine’s 2019 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Gittori shows deep and layered flavors derived from old vines rather than new wood, the fresh fruit tones underlined by a cool minerality and lifted by scents of lavender and thyme. It was the best Grand Selezione we tasted this year , joining Riecine’s Chianti Classico 2019 Annata and Riserva wines, which also led their categories.”
97 points Decanter
“…a true beauty…a glorious demonstration that the category isn’t solely reserved for muscle-bound powerhouses”
96 points James Suckling
“Full-bodied with seamless tannins and a very, very long finish. A benchmark Gran Selezione. Structured, yet fine at the same time. Drink or hold.”
