2013 Castello di Verrazzano Chianti Classico Riserva Sassello Gran Selezione DOCG 750 ml

The Best Chianti You’ll Drink This Year

If you’re a Chianti Classico fan, you know that finding a truly exceptional bottle can be a challenge. Not today. The 95-point 2013 Castello di Verrazzano Chianti Classico “Sassello” is one of a handful of new Chianti’s worthy of Italy’s best upgrade ever: it bears the prestigious “Gran Selezione” title. By law, at least 80 percent of the grapes must be estate-grown. In fact, Sassello is 100 percent estate Sangiovese from the  millenium-old Verrazzano’s La Querciolina vineyard. Gran Selezione wines are required by law to age 30 months in barrel, and Sassello is no exception, also spending another 6 months in bottle before release. The result? A “Rich, creamy and beautifully textured,” red dubbed a “total knockout,” by Vinous, worthy of 95 points. Sassello is only made in exceptional vintages, and production is small. Our 396-bottle allocation is even smaller, given the many Wine Access Chianti lovers out there — don’t delay.  

“These are the finest wines I have ever tasted from Castello di Verrazzano,” raves Antonio Galloni of Vinous, in writing explicitly about their 2013 Chiantis.

Gothamites might recognize the Verrazzano name right away. Giovanni da Verrazzano was an Italian nobleman-turned-explorer who sailed to the New World three times, about a century before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. He navigated the East Coast and became the first European explorer to sail into New York harbor. For his contributions, Verrazzano was memorialized by the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Back in Italy, the Verrazzano family is steeped in a much longer history. The 560-acre property bearing the family’s name since the 7th century sits on the site of former Roman and Etruscan settlements, its boundaries unchanged for a millenium. The wines produced there have been lauded for nearly as long: The “vineyards situated in Verrazzano” are noted in a manuscript that dates to 1150 and is preserved at the Abbey of Passignano.

The Verrazzano family was a founding member of the Consorzio del Chianti Classico, but the Castello’s current glory belongs to the Cappellini family. They purchased the Verrazzano estate in 1958, restored the villa, and revitalized the vineyards, all with respect to the parcel’s long history.

Verrazzano’s 105 acres of vineyards are high in limestone, which, coupled with with the cooler climate in this northern part of the Chianti Classico zone, results in uniquely muscular yet refined wines that are mellowed by the longer aging required by the Gran Selezione DOCG. From a 96-point Chianti harvest, the Sassello is the perfect standard-bearer for the new pinnacle of Chianti Classico.

Jonathan Cristaldi

Editor-in-Chief, Wine Access