2019 Tenuta Casenuove Chianti Classico 750 ml

Tenuta Casenuove, whose history dates back to the 17th century, is located in Panzano in Chianti’swhose famed Conca d’Oro—the natural amphitheater known as one of the finest grapegrowing areas in Italy. The estate, which comprises 120 hectares of land in this prime territory, sits between 370 and 490 meters of elevation. The diurnal temperature variations and galestro-rich soil provide a fertile place to grow wines of beautiful elegance and longevity. 

The modern rebirth of Casenuove traces back to 2015, when Frenchman Philippe Austruy purchased the estate. Austruy is no stranger to world-class wineries, and he owns a handful of them across Europe: Bordeaux’s Château Malescasse, Commanderie do Peyrassol in Provence, and Quinta da Côrte in Portugal. 

Austruy’s first act as owner was to hire renowned Florentine agronomist Alessandro Fonseca as the director of the winery. Fonseca built a crack team, including enologist Cosimo Casini and cellar master Maria Sole Zoli, both Tuscan natives who brought a wealth of outside experience back home, and bring it to bear at Tenuta Casenuove. 

Of the estate’s 28 hectares under vine, just 10 are dedicated to Sangiovese, which achieves optimal ripeness with gorgeous acidity and structure on the south- and southwest-facing stony vineyards. As of 2018, the estate is converting to full organic viticulture and winemaking. 

For the 2019, the grapes—90% Sangiovese, with a little Merlot and Cabernet—were hand-harvested into small bins and taken to Casenuove’s state-of-the-art cellar, where they were destemmed and gravity-fed into concrete tanks for fermentation. After 30 days, the wine was racked and pressed and aged for a full year in cement tanks and large Slavonian oak.