Chianti Classico Gran Selezione. It should be easy enough to understand what that means, but in fact, there’s been some confusion around it. The classification, created in 2014, is reserved for wines placed at the very top of the Chianti Classico quality pyramid, i.e. wines that are aged longer than Riservas. But it doesn’t mandate the use of 100% Sangiovese, the region’s signature grape, which some aficionados (like me) believe would have better defined Gran Selezione in consumers’ minds—namely, as the ultimate expression of the Chianti Classico terroir. 

Today’s offer is an appreciative tip of the cap to the historic Tenuta di Bibbiano, who’ve taken Gran Selezione to its apotheosis: all Sangiovese from a few select vineyards on their estate, aged a total of 30 months in barrel and bottle before release. This 2018 is every bit as powerful and expressive as any Brunello di Montalcino, and from a price/quality perspective, it’s simply as good as it gets. This is a bona fide collectible that’s going to blow some minds 10+ years down the line. Make yours one of them. We can offer up to six bottles per person until our stash is gone.

And just to be clear: Chianti Classico was a world-class collectible before Gran Selezione came along. But I think the rise in popularity of Sangiovese-only versions has helped more people recognize Chianti’s greatness. Anyone who has visited the region knows that it is as much woodland as it is vineyard, and no grape variety evokes the woods quite like Sangiovese. In the wines of Bibbiano, you’re also summoning the spirit of the late Giulio Gambelli (1925-2012), a legendary consultant who helped craft most of the greatest Sangiovese wines ever made. Gambelli famously worked with Sangiovese icons such as Montevertine and Soldera, but his longest tenure of all—some 60 years—was with Bibbiano. 

Let’s start with Bibbiano’s ancient history: Like many wine estates in this part of the world, it’s was once a feudal property, or tenuta, dating to the 11th century. Spanning more than 200 hectares and complete with a Medieval castle and hilltop chapel, it was acquired by the Marzi family in 1865; commercial wine production began in earnest until after World War II, making Bibbiano one of the longest-established wineries in Chianti Classico. Today, brothers Tommaso and Federico Marrocchesi Marzi oversee the impeccably restored estate, which includes 25 hectares of organically farmed vines in the hamlet of Castellina in Chianti. They’ve held organic certification since 2011, and have become known for focusing on 100% Sangiovese wines.

The Bibbiano vineyards reach to about 300 meters’ elevation, with soils composed of the classic Chiantigiano mix of sandstone and clay/limestone marl. These are rocky, sedimentary soils, with Bibbiano’s in Castellina featuring a high percentage of alberese, a hard, whitish rock containing lots of calcium carbonate (i.e. lime). Sangiovese is a grape with naturally high acidity to begin with, but these soils are key to maintaining the nerve and lift that distinguishes the best Chianti Classico wines.

For this Gran Selezione, Bibbiano sources grapes from about 15 hectares of vines occupying the “Montornello exposure” (note that vigne is the plural of vigna; in some vintages, they also make a single-vineyard Gran Selezione called “Vigna del Capannino”). Montornello undergoes a 33-day maceration on skins during fermentation in concrete tanks, after which it is aged 24 months in a mixture of concrete and 500-liter French oak tonneaux. An additional six months of aging in bottle, along with its vineyard-specific pedigree, lifts it to the Gran Selezione level, and it is a full-throttle expression of Sangiovese: densely concentrated and full of nerve at the same time.

In the glass, it’s a deep, nearly opaque ruby with garnet and rose highlights, with heady aromas of brambly wild berries, black cherry, tobacco leaf, espresso grounds, and lots of underbrush. It is full-bodied, dark, and brooding but also brightened by a wave of freshness and a firm grip of tannin. It really has all its component pieces in place—both fruit and earth get equal stage time and the wine has a tautness that suggests at least 10 years of positive evolution still ahead of it. If consuming now, decant it 60 minutes before serving in large Bordeaux stems at 60-65 degrees, but please consider laying a few bottles down: it has the potential for real fireworks in a few years’ time, and I know I want to open one then and prove to the world just how “cellar-worthy” Chianti Classico can be! As for food, well, this wine provokes a downright primal urge for grilled beef of some kind, preferably something well-marbled and well-charred. Game birds or a woodsy mushroom pasta would more than suffice as well. Just make it as “Tuscan” as you can, because this wine is as Tuscan as it gets. Enjoy!