As I have repeated ad nauseum here, Chianti Classico may well be Tuscany’s best terroir for the Sangiovese grape, although it’s still difficult to find a critical mass of wines to support this assertion. But the list is rapidly growing, especially as more producers master one of the trickiest grape varieties on earth. Wines made from 100% Sangiovese (or close to it) are fashionable now, whereas 15 years ago, when I first met Giovanna Morganti at Podere Le Boncie, wines like her perfumed, Sangiovese-centric “Le Trame” were overrun by bigger, slicker styles incorporating grapes like Cabernet and Merlot.
Yes, Chianti Classico was always a blended wine—only recently was DOCG law revised to allow for 100% Sangiovese incarnations—and Le Trame continues to be one, but its Sangiovese character is unmistakable. In some vintages, like 2015, I’d throw Le Trame in the mix alongside the best Brunellos from Montalcino and feel confident it would place highly. More than that, though, I’ve relied on Le Trame as an Italian wine to pour for Burgundy snobs; more than a few of them have been won over by this soulful, earthy Tuscan, as I’m certain you will be. It no longer says “Chianti Classico” on the label (making the blind-tasting “reveal” less dramatic), but few wines capture the essence of the place and its signature variety so beautifully. As Morganti’s cult following has grown, Le Trame has become harder to get, and this vintage is sure to win new acolytes—so make room in your cellar for some!
Like others before her, Morganti “opted out” of the Chianti Classico consorzio several vintages ago, choosing instead to label her wines with the Toscana IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) designation. The production discipline for the Chianti Classico DOCG (i.e. the various rules a producer must follow to label his/her wine with the designation) has changed countless times over the years, and not always to the liking of individual producers. The acclaimed Montevertine estate, for example, which sits smack in the middle of Chianti Classico, has never carried the designation on its wines: Originally, their desire to produce a ‘monovarietal’ Sangiovese made it impossible (perhaps you’ve heard of a wine called “Le Pergole Torte”?) to name it Chianti Classico; the law required it be a blend.
But the regulations of DOCG law cover all facets of production, and Morganti ultimately found other aspects of the discipline that didn’t align with her philosophy. These quibbles with the strictures of controlled appellations are hardly unique to Chianti Classico, but it seems like it has had more than its share, which is too bad—it hurts the region’s ‘brand’ to have some of the greatest wines made there not carry its name. It also hurts my own efforts to push the “Chianti Classico is the Burgundy of Italy” narrative, but I’m not giving up!
Giovanna’s farm, just outside the village of Castelnuovo Berardenga, is just up the road from the expansive San Felice estate, which her late father, Enzo, used to run. Enzo Morganti was a seminal figure in Chianti Classico in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, working for many years at Tenuta di Lilliano before moving to San Felice in 1967. He was a champion of the Sangiovese grape and devoted much time and effort to clonal research on the variety, and the three-hectare property he left to Giovanna is planted almost exclusively to the grape: Only a small percentage is left for traditional—and these days somewhat obscure—supporting varieties such as Ciliegiolo, Mammolo, Colorino and Fogliatonda. Farming organically and working in as ‘non-interventionist’ a manner as possible, Giovanna ferments Le Trame on indigenous yeasts in large, open-topped wooden vats and follows with aging in used vessels only—a combination of 500-liter tonneaux and larger Slavonian oak botti. The wines typically spend about two years in wood and another in bottle before release.
As has been the case in so many of Europe’s greatest terroirs, 2015 is a special vintage of this wine—offering up an exceptional level of breadth and power along with a touch more accessibility in its youth. But don’t let its youthful charm fool you: This will go 10-15 years with ease and likely much longer. In the glass, it displays a dark and concentrated crimson core moving to garnet and orange reflections on the rim. The aromas are deep and complex, with notes of black cherry, black plum, blood orange rind, tomato leaf, red tobacco, grilled meat, underbrush, and wild herbs. Tempting as it is to compare this wine to great Brunello, it diverges when it comes to the oak component—whereas Brunello is so often buffed to a high, oaky shine, Le Trame shows only the subtlest oak influence. This is all about pure, deep fruit and a profound mineral/underbrush component that immediately screams “Tuscany” to anyone who’s had the pleasure of being there. While you should absolutely squirrel some bottles away for future enthrallment, be sure to open one soon, decant it about an hour before service, and drink it with a well-seared, salt-and-pepper-crusted steak. No complicated recipes needed here, just a hot grill and some good friends. If you love Italian wine, this is an important one. Don’t miss it!
