San Giusto a Rentennano Chianti Classico Riserva ‘Le Baroncole’ 2018

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

About San Giusto a Rentennano

San Giusto a Rentennano, originally a monastery fortified in 1204 by the Florentines as their boundary with Siena, today uses the underground vaults built as part of the fortification as their cellars. For centuries it was owned by the Ricasoli family of neighbouring Brolio, passing to the Martini di Cigala family in 1957. This beautiful 160 hectare estate, with 30 of vineyards, is run by brothers and sister team of Francesco, Luca and Elisabetta. The vineyards enjoy exceptional exposure with considerable day and night temperature differences and the terrain is composed of various soils rich in minerals.

San Giusto’s wines are renowned for their elegance, balancing rich fruit and beautiful aromatics with superb freshness. Chianti Classico shows great purity with bright red fruits and floral notes. Le Baroncole, a Riserva selection aged for 16-20 months in barrique, has dark cherry fruit, flowers, spice and liquorice. Percarlo, the estate’s flagship wine first made in 1983, is a selection of Sangiovese from across six cru vineyards that form the best expression of the terroir of San Giusto. Multi-layered with rich dark fruit supported by firm tannins and beautifully integrated oak, Percarlo is a powerful wine that cellars well for up to 20 years in the finest vintages. La Ricolma, one of world’s great Merlots, is typically silky with rich plummy fruit and a distinct stamp of ‘Tuscanness’.

Finally, Vin San Giusto is one of Tuscany’s finest Vin Santos. Made mostly from Malvasia with 10% Trebbiano, the grapes are dried on racks for approximately 140 days before being pressed into six small chestnut barrels for six years. Concentrated and complex with fig, toffee, salted caramel, prunes and spice, the palate goes on and on. This is one of Italy’s must try before you die wines, unfortunately our allocation is just 24 bottles.

In the Vineyard

The estate is comprised of 160 hectares, situated at an average altitude of 270 meters above sea level. 31 hectares are planted in vineyards, 11 in olive groves, 40 in woods, 78 in cultivated and grazing lands. The terrain is composed of various soils rich in different mineral components, sand, clay, lime, alkali, argil and calcium. The microclimate is characterized by considerable day and night temperature differences and often heat during harvest time. All the vineyards enjoy exceptionally favourable exposure. During the months of July and August, we thin-out the natural growth of grape bunches by 30-50%, a practice called “green harvesting ,” which encourages the full and perfect maturation of our grapes.

Our farming methods remain largely manual and exclusively organic certified.

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In the Winery

That first bit of kit in the pic’s below is a seriously expensive destemmer. Having one is sign that a winery is intent on working gently with the fruit and is prepared to spend coin to build divine mouthfeel and tannin profiles. You can see one in operation in this Wine Bites Mag article “Winemaking Excellence – Fruit Sorting & Destemming at Yabby Lake with Tom Carson”.

Chianti Classico red wine D.O.C.G.

Grapes: Sangiovese 95% – Canaiolo 5%

Harvest: from 20th to 26th September 2018 and from 8th to 11th October 2018

Yield per vine: 1,4 kg

Length of fermentation and maceration on the skins:13 days

Wood-ageing: 11 months in oak barrels and casks of 100- 30; 5; 2,25 hl

Bottled: from 13th to 19th February 2020 and from 12th to 17th March 2020

Analysis: Alcohol: 14.5% Sugar: <1g/Lt Acidity: 5.35 g/Lt Volatile Acidity: 0.50g/Lt Net extracts: 30.3 g/Lt pH: 3.48 Sulphur: less than 100 mg per liter as required by organic laws.

The 2018 Vintage at San Giusto

A fairly rainy spring season, more so during May and June. Even temperatures (no peaks above the average were registered) gave way to a ripening of slightly late beginnings, though steadily protracted up to mid September. Rather warm weather was experienced thereafter, with steep temperature excursions that favoured a fast rounding up of the fruit. The climate pattern was similar to that of year 2016, to the point that harvesting was carried out at the same period of time in both cases. The resulting wine proves nicely fresh and concentrated. Thinning-out took place in two turns; approximately 40% of the initial spontaneous fruit load was discarded in total.

Where in the World is San Giusto?

San Giusto is in the Gaiole within the Chianti Classico sub-region of Tuscany.

COther sub-regions include Montalcino and Montepuliciano. Like Montalcino, Chianti covers a large area and is relatively poorly defined in comparison to the likes of Barolo.

As is often the case with Italian wines there is confusion created by an ever changing general classification system. In this case we have wines two basic designation. The first, the Chianti Classico DOCG for which you see a black rooster on the label or neck tie which come from a defined area between Florence and Sienna. The Second Chianti DOCG or greater Chianti region that surrounds the Chianti Classico DOCG which in turn is broken up into seven sub-regions as seen in the second map below.

Isole e Olena – Is in the Chianti Classico DOCG, sub-region Barberino Val d’Elsa to the west of Radda