This little sangiovese from Frescobaldi is starting to show a very lovely nose of dried rose petals, dried herbs, and tough old leather. Garnet color, with still fresh acidity, this is a great table wine for $18.
Chianti Ruffina is a small area outside of Chianti Classico which, as far as I can tell, has the same winemaking rules applied to it but gets the benefit of a different name. Castello di Nipozzano, Frescobalidi's primary estate is located here, surrounded by Tuscan hillsides that are, "Dry and stony, with clay, limestone, well drained, [and] poor in organic matter" according to their website.
Frescobaldi claims this vineyard is picked manually (not by machine) and the wine aged for 2 years in two and three year old barrels. It's a very good wine, but it left me with a mild headache, which I blame on their probably using too much sulphur in the winemaking process. About this last point, however, I may be wrong. It could be I just drank too much. Ha!
Coincidentally, tried a bottle of the '05 version when in Florence on Weds. October 29.
ReplyDeleteFour of us agreed it was smashing!