Wines

A blend of 90% Sangiovese with 10% Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo, and Colorino, Piemaggio’s flagship Chianti Classico ferments spontaneously in stainless steel during a 3 ½ week maceration, and spends two years aging in a combination of concrete tanks and previously used wooden casks—mainly 25-hectoliter Slavonian oak, with some 500-liter French oak employed as well. Utterly textbook in character, it combines earth, bright fruit, and tangy acidity, with notable yet unforced concentration; it is a wine of balance and egoless drinkability.

Only in vintages that merit it does Piemaggio produce a Riserva, which spends an extra year in cask but is otherwise produced in the same fashion as the flagship wine, and from the same basic blend of grape varieties: 90% Sangiovese with 10% Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo, and Colorino. As with the basic Chianti Classico, there is a sense of analog warmth here, with tannins refined through time but retaining a bit of grain; this, thankfully, is not a wine that has been buffed clean by technology.