San Felice, Chianti Classico Gran Selezione (Tuscany, Italy) “La Pieve” 2021 ($50, Total Beverage Solution)

The four wines I tasted recently from San Felice are all quite impressive, but this Chianti Classico Gran Selezione from the highly touted 2021 vintage is downright stunning. Its single most impressive attribute is that – even at this relatively early stage in its evolution – it is already extremely well integrated and (better still) “complete.” In the rare way that I use that term, I mean that when assessing the wine there is not element that I can isolate that could either be enhanced or muted to improve the wine. This requires excellent grape growing, of course, as well as careful selection of clusters, but also very skillful work in the cellar, so that neither too much nor too little is extracted from the fruit during maceration and fermentation. Obviously, oak aging also needs to be very judicious to secure the outcome of superb proportionality and harmonious integration of aromatic and flavor elements. All of this was achieved in the case of this wine, which is already delicious after the 30 seconds it takes to open the bottle and get the wine into a glass. I know the wine will become even better as it develops tertiary notes from additional time in bottle. However, as has long been understood, great wines are great from the start, and this could hardly be off to a better start. If my score is off, I missed by a point on the low side. And as if all this were not enough, the price for a Gran Selezione offering at this quality level is also notably more reasonable than many counterparts in this category.
96 Michael Franz