2018 Castell'in Villa Chianti Classico Tuscany 750 ml

Sangiovese rarely gets more dynamic than Chianti Classico, and Chianti Classico doesn’t get more classic than Castell’in Villa. Their 2018 is a beacon of the midweight, spice-tinged finesse that has entrenched the region as one of Italy’s most regal.

This small Castelnuovo Berardenga winery is “deeply admired and revered by the cognoscenti,” according to Vinous’s Antonio Galloni, who has described Castell’in Villa as a “reference-point estate” and praised their “Chianti Classicos of rare distinction.”

Castell’in Villa’s wines are ethereal and silky in texture, but there’s an awesome strength in their length, complexity, and soul. Their 2018 shows off elegant red fruit, robust flowers, toasted nutmeg, and velvety tannins, all rendered with brilliant warmth and grace. Because the winery holds back wines longer than their peers, this bottle, though tantalizing and accessible today, has the capability to age several more years.

A half-century ago, Principessa Coralia Pignatelli della Leonessa bought the 13th-century property with her husband, an Italian diplomat. When her husband tragically passed away, she turned her focus to making traditional wines, with results that commanded the region’s attention—and that of renowned enologist Giacomo Tachis, who bought her wines to blend into early vintages of Tignanello.

Sitting atop a hill in Castelnuovo Berardenga, Castell’in Villa’s low-yielding vineyards are “some of the best in all of Chianti Classico,” according to Wine Advocate. They sit on picturesque, south-facing hillsides, interspersed with olive groves and ancient forests, in alluvial soils dotted with fossilized fragments of limestone.

In the warm 2018 vintage, those vines brought forth a wine of sleek concentration and harmony. Aged for 24 months in Slavonian oak, it’s a perfect crystallization of the winery’s unflinchingly traditional philosophy.