Monsanto’s Chianti Classico and Chianti Classico Riserva are wines that take you to a happy place. When you get to their single vineyard ‘Il Poggio’ things get taken to another level, more layers of aroma, and, flavour, more depth and length, yet still with restraint, and, exceptional tannins and mouthfeel!
Made from traditional varieties, 90% Sangiovese and 10% Canaiolo and Colorino, there’s a sense of harmony, often missing from Super Tuscans blended with French Varieties. Classic Sangiovese comes through in spades in this baby.
We have only 18 bottles available. Sorry, but, I stashed 6 in the cellar for my daughter … at least that’s the excuse I used.
About Monsanto
Aldo Bianchi, a native of San Gimignano, left Tuscany before the Second World War to seek fortune in the North of Italy. In 1960, he came back to the area for a wedding and was enchanted by the view from the terrace of Castello di Monsanto: all the Val d’Elsa with the inimitable backdrop of the Towers of San Gimignano. It was love at first sight which made him buy the property within a few months. But if Aldo was bewitched by the landscape, Fabrizio, his son, immediately fell in love with the wines he found in the cellar. Thanks to a passion for wine handed down to him by his grandmother, who came from Piedmont, and to an innate entrepreneurial spirit, Fabrizio, together with the untiring help of his wife Giuliana, started to plant new vineyards and convert the numerous farmhouses….and an incredible story of love, passion and joy for wine and everything concerned with it, starts from here.
In 1962, for the first time within the area of the Chianti Classico Denomination, Fabrizio vinified the grapes from the Il Poggio vineyard: the First Chianti Classico Cru was born.
In 1968, he decided to eliminate the white grapes from the Poggio blend (Trebbiano and Malvasia), a compulsory requirement for the Specifications : a clear and net message to try and make it understood that the real richness of this land, to which the maximum attention had to be given, had to be the Sangiovese.
In the same year, much ahead of his times, he also eliminated the grape-stalk fermentation and the use, very much followed then, of the “Governo alla Toscana” (a refermentation technique adding grapes harvested later) in order to produce a wine of major complexity and balance suitable for a long ageing.
Always the more convinced in the value of Sangiovese, in 1974, he created, from the Scanni vineyard, planted in 1968, the Fabrizio Bianchi Sangioveto – then labelled as Sangioveto Grosso – a table wine exclusively from Sangiovese grapes, which triggered off the enhancement of this vine in Tuscany.
About the Wines
Monsanto 'Il Poggio' 2012
Born in the vineyard “Il Poggio” (5.5 Ha, 310 metres a.s.l.) from which in 1962, it took its name: it is the first Chianti Classico Cru. Made of 90% Sangiovese and from 7% Canaiolo and 3% Colorino, it ages for 20 months in French oak barrels. Today it represents the most prestigious product of the company, appreciated all over the world. It is produced only in the best vintages. The company has chosen to keep a considerable quantity of bottles of this wine in the cellar being the permanent archives, able to tell the history of Castello di Monsanto.
I don’t drink a lot of Sangiovese, though I do like it. But every Sangiovese is one bottle of Nebbiolo I’ve missed. Sad, but true.
Oak here, of a cedar type, dried herbs and tobacco, suede, dried cherry, tight mineral acidity, huge yet kind of velour tannin and wonderful flavour. The length is plus plus plus. It’s a bit of a thing. Vivacious and poised. It’s a great wine. Drink : 2020 - 2032+
I like the berry and chocolate character of this with its undertones of hazelnut. Medium body and silky textured. Flavorful finish. Lovely age to it now. Drink and enjoy.
A ripe, complex red, featuring cherry, graphite, leather, tobacco and spice aromas and flavors. Finds a nice equilibrium in the end, where the finish is fresh and long. Reticent at first, this needs a few hours of aeration to coax out all the facets, so decant or be patient. Best from 2020 through 2035.
The 2012 Chianti Classico Riserva Vigneto Il Poggio is dark, sensual and inviting. Silky tannins give the wine immediacy, and sweet red cherry, blood orange, herbs and sweet tobacco are all nicely delineated. Readers will have to give the 2012 at least a few years for the wine to shed some of its youthful intensity. Even so, this looks to be a relatively approachable vintage for Il Poggio that won’t need a ton of time be accessible. If opened young, though, the 2012 needs quite a bit of air.
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