Chianti Classico Gran Selezione San Lorenzo, Castello di Ama 2021

This is really perfumed and gorgeous, with black cherries, blackcurrants and violets. Full-bodied with totally integrated tannins and a palate presence that is pretty spectacular. Wonderful finish. Give this three or four years. Try after 2027.

This wine represents a selection of the best Sangiovese sourced from various plots with a tiny addition of Merlot and Malvasia Nera. The Castello di Ama 2021 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione San Lorenzo takes a few extra moments to open in the glass, but unlike the La Casuccia that holds back, this wine comes into full view quickly enough. The wine's flavor profile is a little meatier and fuller, and this could be linked to the warm vintage conditions. San Lorenzo is a generous wine, and it is a bottle you can enjoy in the medium or long term.

The 2021 Chianti “San Lorenzo” Gran Selezione from Castello di Ama was raised in twenty-two percent new oak this year, with the remainder of the barriques being “one wine barrels”. The cépages is eighty percent sangiovese, thirteen percent merlot and seven percent malvasia nera. The wine tips the scales at 13.5 percent octane in this vintage and delivers a truly beautiful bouquet of dark berries, black cherries, espresso, cigar ash, dark soil tones, Tuscan herb tones, woodsmoke and cedar. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused and shows off superb depth of fruit at the core, with fine soil signature, ripe, beautifully-integrated tannins, lovely balance and a long, complex and very classy finish. All this superb bottle of Chianti needs is enough time down in the cellar to properly soften up its tannins. (Drink between 2035-2075)