Antinori adds three new Chianti Classico Gran Selezione wines

Purchased in 2014, San Sano reaches 450m on a luminous plateau in Gaiole. It is an exceptionally rocky site with substantial underpinnings of alberese, a limestone-rich marl. Refined in 12-hectolitre French oak cask, it is the most finessed of Antinori’s Gran Selezione quartet. Scents of mace and juniper introduce a palate that's linear in progression and built around a blood orange and pomegranate core that reaches stony depths. Animating acidity and beautifully knit tannins are in perfect synergy, culminating in a very zesty, citrussy finish. This has a bright future.

The Cigliano vineyard faces east-west at an elevation of 280m and has a continental climate cooled by coastal breezes and a good diurnal temperature difference. Once a riverbed, the soil is mainly alluvial clay with some limestone and pockets of gravel, galestro and alberese. It produces a richer, rounder, fuller style wine with ripe black fruit. The vineyard is typically harvested 20 days earlier than San Sano and the wine is aged in barrique for 14 months. Opaque ruby in colour, it is warm, friendly and immediate on the nose with ripe blackberry and a touch of prune, fig and lightly fragrant flowers. On the palate it is round, medium-full and gentle with quite a luxurious texture and lovely fine, salty tannins. This is a wine with intensity and character but also great drinkability.

From the lower, western slopes of Castellina, Buiano blends two nearby but distinct parcels – one on clay, the other on predominantly sandy soil. The first brings freshness and the second more structure and power, according to Antinori’s technical director Dora Pacciani. Ageing is in 500-litre new French oak barrels. It is bigger boned but brilliantly balanced and packs in plenty of flavour. Flint, beeswax and cinnamon weave through wild red berries. As it opens, perfumed violets poke through. Ample, almost opulent fruit is tightly girdled by velvety tannins. Sweet wood nuances are explicit but well embedded. Tons of energy and persistence here.

The Badia a Passignano vineyards, close to the Tenuta Tignanello estate, lie at an altitude of between 250 and 300 metres above sea level and are surrounded by 600-metre high hills to the east and southwest, which form a protective amphitheatre. This area is described by Antinori as a ‘geographical liaison between the UGA of San Casciano and the UGA of Panzano’. It has a Mediterranean climate with mild winters and summers that remain fresh and well ventilated. This in turn encourages a longer, slower ripening season. The 2021 has some notes of green herb as well as bitter cherry, orange zest and sweet vanilla. There is a touch of forest greenness and a balsamic note, as well as spicy black pepper. On the palate the tannins are firm, upright and assertive but always refined. There is a beautiful soft, enveloping texture and weight, and the acidity gives mouthwatering freshness on the finish. It is a little oak-dominant at present, but is still young and needs time. A beautifully made wine that expresses a strong identity.