2017 Rocca di Montegrossi "San Marcellino" Chianti Classico Gran Selezione

Marco Ricasoli’s vineyards are located in the Monti area, in the southern sector of Gaiole. His 2019 from the 17-acre San Marcellino vineyard shows how much depth and concentration can be achieved from these rocky soils, even in a hot and drought-stricken vintage like 2017. Some of his neighbors had already finished harvesting by mid-September, but Ricasoli chose to wait and benefited from some late-season rains that helped to rebalance the vines. The wine offers deeply concentrated flavors of plum and black cherry, some of those dark fruit tones enhanced by a small percentage of pugnitello that’s blended with the sangiovese. Notes of fennel, lavender and red apple skin weave through the wine, the flavors underlined by a layer of graphite that gives a firm, mineral texture to this wine.