This offer comes from SommSelect Editorial Director and Italian wine specialist David Lynch, whose feelings about Chianti Classico, and Monteraponi in particular, are strong (to say the least).
When I first started researching my book, “Vino Italiano,” in 2000, Michele Braganti wasn’t yet producing wines at Monteraponi, a property that has been in his family since the early 1970s. To be truthful, Monteraponi didn’t appear on my radar until much later, but, over the last few years, I’ve gotten to know Michele, his wines, and his exquisite property pretty well. To say that this guy is “living the dream” is putting it mildly, and if he didn’t make such authentic, natural expressions of Chianti Classico—a region I believe in more than many people think I should—I’d probably resent him. Many days I’ll open Instagram and there’s Michele holding a beautiful trout he caught while fly-fishing in a nearby stream, a bullet-shaped Tuscan cigar in his grinning mouth. He’s also a sharp dresser who’s got the ‘country squire’ look nailed (lots of nice wool and good shoes). And he works with one of my heroes, the Tuscan winemaking consultant Maurizio Castelli, whose devotion to the Sangiovese grape and the Chianti region is legend. To me, Monteraponi Chianti Classico is a quintessential wine. It would be on my desert island list—a delicious and faithful expression of grape and place—and I’ve won over many Chianti skeptics with it over the years. Not that there should be Chianti skeptics: Chianti Classico is a world-class terroir and this 2014 does it proud.
The Monteraponi property spans more than 200 hectares, most of which is woodland on the outskirts of the village of Radda in Chianti. Braganti has 12 hectares of vineyards and 8 of olive groves, all now certified organic, and like many Tuscan wine properties, Monteraponi was at one time a Medieval borgo—a tiny village unto itself that once belonged to a marchese (marquis) who was the governor of Tuscany. Today the impeccably restored houses are used as holiday rentals, and Braganti’s aging cellar sits underneath a 12th-century tower that is the centerpiece of the property. Perched at about 500 meters elevation, with its vineyards concentrated within a south-facing amphitheater, it is a stunningly beautiful place to make (and drink) wine. The soils are the classic central Tuscan mix of galestro (a friable marl with limestone) and alberese (sandstone).
Although I wasn’t able to attend, I noticed recently that Michele conducted a joint tasting with one of his neighbors, Montevertine, which is situated on the other side of the Pesa River outside of Radda. Montevertine, thanks to its ethereal, 100% Sangiovese “Le Pergole Torte,” is one of the iconic wineries in the Chianti Classico zone, despite the fact that it does not make wines labeled ‘Chianti Classico’ (Montevertine’s founder, the legendary Sergio Manetti, left the Chianti Classico consortium in the early 1980s, wanting his wines to be Sangiovese-driven in a way that the appellation laws of the time wouldn’t allow). More than once, I’ve heard Le Pergole Torte referred to as “the Burgundy of Italy,” and in my own experience, I’d assert that if Sangiovese is ever “Burgundian,” it’s in Chianti Classico, not Montalcino. This is not a knock on Brunello di Montalcino, which is simply a burlier take on Sangiovese from a warmer, more southerly locale. What Michele is seeking in his Chiantis is the finesse and aromatic uplift of red Burgundy, and like the Manettis across the valley, he gets it. I had dinner with him last year and he plopped a foil-wrapped bottle on the table for me to taste “blind.” It had a Burgundy-shaped bottle, and a Burgundian personality, and as I swirled and contemplated which village of the Côte de Nuits it hailed from, he gleefully tore off the foil to reveal his 2012 “Baron Ugo” Chianti Classico Riserva (not yet in the US market, by the way). It was lightly hued, delicate, exceptionally fragrant, and completely unlike the vast majority of riserva-level Chiantis on the market, most of which contain substantial percentages of Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and a healthy dollop of new wood to boot. Although Chianti may technically contain 100% Sangiovese these days, it is still, for most producers—including Monteraponi—a blend. The trick is managing how the very delicate Sangiovese plays with others, as even a small percentage of an ‘alpha’ grape like Cabernet can tip the scales dramatically. The only grapes besides Sangiovese in Monteraponi’s reds are small (less than 10%) percentages of the traditional Chianti Classico blending grapes, Canaiolo and Colorino.
This 2014 Chianti Classico is what’s known as an annata bottling, meaning it is aged a minimum of one year before release. Monteraponi’s annata is fermented in cement vats using only ambient yeasts, undergoing a fairly long skin maceration (25 days) in the process, and it is aged 16 months in large Slavonian oak casks. It is “finished” for one month in cement before being bottled by gravity without any fining or filtration. Containing 95% Sangiovese and 5% Canaiolo, it is a perfect snapshot of the place it comes from: It tastes like the woods.
In the glass, the 2014 is a translucent ruby moving to garnet at the rim, with heady aromas of black cherry, rose petal, raspberry, black pepper, and wet stones, and that minerality carries through to the palate, where the wooly tannins and savory, smoky, meaty notes pull you away from Burgundy Pinot Noir and plant you firmly in Tuscany. Yes, there are some kindred qualities between Sangiovese and Pinot (mainly in terms of scale), but Sangiovese ultimately shows more forest floor and less sweet cherry than red Burgundy. In either case, you are drinking something that is clearly of the earth; it harmonizes with food in a way few wines can. I could drink it every day, and since I’ll likely be grabbing a case for myself, I probably will for the foreseeable future. Should you care to join me, decant a bottle about 30 minutes before serving in Burgundy stems. I like a slightly cooler temperature, around 55-60 degrees, which tames the acid a touch without dampening the aromatics. The obvious pairing would be a grilled ribeye steak, but if you’d like to go a little deeper, find a purveyor of wild boar and really unleash your inner Tuscan with
this recipe. To the woods!
— David Lynch
