2015 Castello di Gabbiano Bellezza Cavaliere D'Oro Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Tuscany 750 ml

Castello di Gabbiano’s Bellezza is a triumph, seamlessly melding tradition and innovation, showing off the heights that Sangiovese can achieve in a top vintage. Boasting a symphony of fruit, earth, spice, and herbs, it is just beginning to enter its drinking window and promises to deliver for the next five to ten years. 

Gabbiano’s Bellezza ably demonstrates what Chianti Classico’s new top-tier Gran Selezione designation is all about: estate-grown grapes, emphasis on Tuscany’s native Sangiovese, extended aging, and incredible complexity. 

Situated on the southern outskirts of Florence, Gabbiano’s estate dates back to 1124, and their “Belleza” or “Beauty” bottling truly is the belle of the ball. Made from 100% Sangiovese, the 2015 is a complex, powerful Chianti Classico that has the critics falling head-over-heels: Italian wine master Antonio Galloni loved this release for its “especially modern, lush style” while James Suckling noted this release is particularly special for its combination of “tension and power.”

Chief winemaker Federico Cerelli’s precise but light touch in the winery showcases Sangiovese’s excellent translation of the terroir. Located in a Northwestern subzone of Chianti, Gabbiano’s terroir is dominated by especially high concentrations of galestro soils, a local clay that underlies many of Tuscany’s finest vineyards, including Gabbiano’s and their close neighbor, Antinori.

Strict attention to quality is lived and breathed at Gabbiano, which only produces their flagship Bellezza in the best years. 2015 certainly qualified: warm and steady in Tuscany, the vintage received universally rave reviews (“sumptuous” and “nothing less than thrilling”—Vinous, “long-lived, powerful, and concentrated”—Wine Spectator).

The hand-harvested grapes are fermented with wild yeasts and aged for over three years in barrels made from oak that grows on the Gabbiano property before additional bottle aging. The result is a crimson wine that leaps from the glass crushed red currant, dried red cherry and dark plum aromas, before giving way to a parade of woodsy herbs, tobacco, cedar plank and worn leather. The palate shows a dusty earth character with rose petal, iodine and mushroom as a result of its aging regimen, and the longer this bottle is open the more it reveals its savory depth and irresistible charm.