Querciabella Chianti Classico Riserva 2021
£33.75
The wine
Pure Sangiovese, drawn from the best parcels the estate farms at Greve, Radda and Gaiole in Chianti. Lamole sits close to 700 metres on sandy soils with clay and schist, lending elegance; Radda brings galestro slate, persistent tannin and darker fruit; Gaiole adds riper fruit and marked acidity from its limestone. Organic and plant-based biodynamic farming, at 30 hectolitres per hectare.
Riserva requires two years of ageing against the standard wine's twelve months, and comes from the estate's better parcels at Greve and Radda. Sangiovese's firm acidity and tannin need the time; the extra year in wood builds the leather and dried-cherry character that marks mature Chianti Classico.
The producer
Querciabella
View all Querciabella winesQuerciabella was founded at Greve in Chianti in 1974 by Giuseppe Castiglioni and is now run by his son Sebastiano. It is among the most rigorous estates in Tuscany, and its distinction is as much philosophical as viticultural.
The vineyards have been farmed organically since 1988 and biodynamically since 2000, which put the estate decades ahead of most of the region. More unusually, Querciabella is entirely vegan: no animal products are used in the vineyard or the cellar, so the biodynamic preparations that normally rely on animal materials are replaced with plant-based alternatives, and no fining agents of animal origin are used. Very few serious estates anywhere have committed to that.
Holdings run to around 100 hectares across Chianti Classico and the Maremma. Batar, the white, was among the first Tuscan wines to take Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco seriously; Camartina was one of the original Supertuscans; and the Chianti Classico wines are made from Sangiovese alone, without the softening partners the appellation permits.
