Taste test some traditional Chianti

Thus Badia a Coltibuono's Chianti Classico
10 April 2012

Travel through the hills of Chianti in summer and it's a blessed climate. Go back in winter, as I did recently, and these vineyards tell a much chillier story.

"It's not easy here," says Emanuela Stucchi Prinetti, of Badia a Coltibuono. "I want my Chianti to reflect the hardness of the area."

Sangiovese ripens late here: highish prices reflect the care needed to make decent wine. In skilled hands it yields firm, elegant wines with a slight touch of bitterness.

Thus Badia a Coltibuono's Chianti Classico 2007 (£17.99) brims with raspberry fruit and pepper, light and fruity but with a fresh acidity.

Its Chianti Classico Riserva 2006 (£29.99) is bigger, with sweet, almost crystalline fruit and savoury notes - but still with firm tannins and acidity (mail order from Moreno Wine Direct, 020 7286 0678: you can mix cases, delivery £7.50 first case).

Further to the south of the zone, you might expect riper wines. But it depends on terroir and microclimate. Thus the well-exposed vineyards of San Felice around Castelnuovo Berardenga, in sight of Siena on the clear morning I was there, produce a savoury, herby and full Chianti Classico 2007, with slight bitter notes (Avery's of Bristol, £12.99, www.averys.com, delivery £6.99; you can mix cases, £12.99 ).

Its riserva, Il Grigio 2005, is richer and more concentrated, with a very light touch of oak, balanced with an attractive freshness (from £14.99: Avery's; www.hedleywright.co.uk, mail order, delivery £5 or free for orders over £100).

Still, even mid-range chianti can be pretty astringent. One solution is to blend sangiovese with merlot or cabernet sauvignon for a bigger, riper wine, especially if you use new oak.

That's the route taken since the 1980s by producers of the so-called "supertuscans": most Chianti producers now make at least one wine featuring Bordeaux varietals, labelled as Indicazione Geografica Tipica (Italy's equivalent of Vin de Pays).

Frescobaldi's Marmoreto 2006, from its Castello di Nipozzano in the Chianti Rufina zone, is a fine example, mostly cabernet sauvignon and merlot, with two years in new oak: rich and powerful yet harmonious (Harrods, £52.50). But at that price, there's better to be had on the Tuscan coast - of which more next week.

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