CHIANTI RISERVA DEI COLLI SENESI DOCG

The Chianti Riserva dei Colli Senesi DOCG is the elevated expression of San Gregorio's Chianti — the same ninety percent Sangiovese and ten percent Colorino base, but given the longer fermentation, extended barrel maturation, and additional bottle ageing that the Riserva designation requires and that the wine's more serious ambitions demand. It is the wine through which the estate's commitment to individual vine care and careful vinification finds its most complete expression in the Chianti tradition.

The fermentation in cement extends to ten to twelve days — two to four days longer than the standard Chianti, allowing greater extraction of the colour, tannin, and aromatic compounds that will sustain the wine through its extended ageing. Maturation follows in barrel for ten to twelve months, depending on the vintage — an investment of oak contact that integrates the tannins, develops the aromatic complexity, and imparts the layer of spice and wood-derived richness that distinguishes a Riserva from the standard wine.

A minimum of four months in bottle before release ensures that the wine's aromatic and structural development has proceeded sufficiently before it reaches the consumer. At first taste the wine is very pleasant, with a good structure and long persistence — qualities that make it easy to drink daily while being capable of rewarding those who wait.

This is the Siena hills Chianti at its most considered — a Riserva that does not demand the cellar decade of a great Brunello, but that benefits genuinely from the patience of a few years and that delivers at the dinner table the full weight of the San Gregorio estate's careful, hand-tended farming philosophy.

Available through UniqueWines.