2015 Castell'in Villa Chianti Classico 750 ml

Anyone seeking to educate a palate or build a cellar that can speak to the full complexity of Chianti Classico should leap at the chance to acquire the magisterial 2015 Castell’in Villa—especially at $25 per bottle!

Operated by a reclusive Greek princess with rigorously traditional standards, this small Castelnuovo Berardenga winery is “deeply admired and revered by the cognoscenti,” says Vinous’s Antonio Galloni, who has described Castell’in Villa as a “reference-point estate” for the region.

Tightly focused on the palate with long-grain tannins and bright, savory acidity, the 2015 release earned 93 points from Decanter. Antonio Galloni lauded it as “gorgeous,” featuring “lovely aromatic complexity.

It is a definitive Tuscan statement of the Sangiovese grape with an emphasis on elegance, showing classic notes of cherry, wild herbs, leather, and exotic spice, all rendered with brilliant definition and cut. Boosted by a terrific vintage, the 2015 is as classic and brilliant as Chianti Classico gets, and thanks to the proprietress’s habit of holding back wines until she believes they are ready, this bottling is already accessible and warmly open today—but capable of aging another 20 years!

All that makes today’s offer a supreme Italian deal—a move we highly recommend for a wine that only makes its way to the U.S. in fits and starts, with European sommeliers sniping away cases whenever and wherever they can.

We first fell in love with these wines at a vertical tasting (2000-2010) that demonstrated the incredible depth and sinuous energy these Sangiovese expressions achieve with time. You would never describe Castell’in Villa wines as “powerhouse” or “dominant”—they are ethereal and silky in texture, but there is an awesome strength in their length, complexity, and soul. It remains one of our bucket list goals to sample the house’s original and legendary 1971 Chianti Classico Riserva, of which there is still a small quantity resting in the estate’s cellar.

The owner, Principessa Coralia Pignatelli della Leonessa, is “one of the great personalities in Italian wine,” says Galloni, but not one for the public eye: A half-century ago, the princess acquired the 13th-century property with her husband, an Italian diplomat, in order to exit the world stage and a life of busy travel.

When her husband tragically passed away, and in the same year the property’s olive trees died in a fearsome winter frost, she considered returning to Switzerland where she was educated. But instead, she threw herself into the work of cultivating grapes and making wine in the most traditional way, with results that immediately got the region’s attention. In fact, the famous oenologist Giacomo Tachis bought Castell’in Villa wines to blend in early vintages of Tignanello.

The 133 acres of vines are farmed to low yields, the alluvial soils of pebbles and sand contributing to the sleek concentration and dense aromatics. But the presence of fossilized fragments in limestone vineyards grant a special minerality to this Chianti—just part of why it has become such a collector favorite.