Castello di Ama Montebuoni Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2018 (750ml)

 

Rated 95 Points by Wine Enthusiast

 

Delicious and elegantly structured, this opens with alluring aromas of fragrant blue flower, black-skinned fruit, eucalyptus and espresso.  On the savory, focused palate, bright acidity and lithe, fine-grained tannins accompany juicy black cherry, mocha, licorice and crushed mint.  Drink through 2028.

 

Rated 93 Points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

Here's an exciting discovery from Castello di Ama.  An inaugural vintage, the 2018 Chianti Classico Riserva Montebuoni sources its fruit from a vineyard site planted next to the celebrated Bellavista parcel in 1997.  Showing a classic Tuscan spirt that is playful and mischievous, this wine is beautiful and bright with loads of ripe and soft fruit flavors, spanning from cherry to plum and violets to potting soil.  The wine is medium-bodied and lean, but it shows enough intensity and freshness to make a really nice and lasting impact on the palate.  I can recommend a solid 10-year drinking window for this cheerful bottle.

 

Rated 92 Points by Decanter

 

A brand-new wine for Castello di Ama, Montebuoni comes from a 14.5-hectare vineyard purchased and replanted in 1997.  Adjacent to Vigna Bellavista, it sits between 420 and 500 metres above sea level with a northwest to southeast exposure.  Immediately inviting ripe cherry and plums are punctuated by a parade of fresh fennel, mint, violet and allspice.  Yet the palate is still tightly wound, with grainy tannins taking hold, and very racy acidity on the finish.  If this develops as articulately as the nose suggests, it will be a beauty.

 

Rated 91 Points by Wine Spectator

 

Bright black cherry and blackberry flavors highlight this round, fruity red.  Lively acidity and fine-grained tannins are integrated and lend support.  A touch of earth graces the finish.

 

Castello di Ama Montebuoni

 

Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2018

 

Direct descendant of “Castello di Ama Riserva”, with this wine we have returned to produce a Chianti Classico Riserva.  “Castello di Ama Montebuoni” was born – with 2018 vintage – with the aim of having a wine that can have the depth of the austere “San Lorenzo” combined with the drinkability of the young “Ama”.

 

Fruity and persuasive in the aromas, it reveals the quality with which it is made to the taste.  For us, “Castello di Ama Montebuoni” is the most honest representation of the elegance of Sangiovese in our terroir.

 

Montebuoni Vineyard, nestled on the slope of the hill parallel to the Bellavista Vineyard, consists of ha. 14.50 planted in 1997 and is managed according to the estate’s sustainable viticulture practices.  On the nose the wine shows ripe black cherries, cassis and mint aromas.  The palate is well balanced with firm tannins, refined, harmonic with a long and lingering finish.  A pure expression of elegance.

 

Vineyards

 

About 75 hectares under vine, around the village of Ama.  The vineyards lie between 420 and 527 metres above sea level and extend across four valleys referred to by their traditional names of Bellavista, San Lorenzo, La Casuccia and Montebuoni.

 

320,000 bottles are produced on average every year, divided between Chianti Classico and IGT labels.

 

Chianti Classico

 

The first wine appellation

 

Ama is a small village in the Gaiole municipality.  Castello di Ama is in the historic heart of Chianti Classico, in central Tuscany, between the Florence and Siena provinces.

 

"Chianti" has referred to the municipalities of Radda, Gaiole and Castellina since the mid-eighteenth century.  Over the centuries, the word "Chianti" was overused and abused to the point that a narrower and more distinctive denomination was needed, hence "Chianti Classico".

 

 

Castello Di Ama

 

“Amma where we find the houses of Pianigiani, Montigiani and Ricucci, which are the strongest in all of Chianti... they grow well, they buy and are situated in the best place in Chianti for wine…”  Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II

 

Ama was alive long before it became our home.  Art, landscape and the wisdom of wine have always co-existed in Ama.  The Etruscan origins attest to the existence of a walled town in pre-Roman times.

 

Ama was owned by the Firidolfi family during the Holy Roman Empire.  The castle, which stands in the denomination, was probably destroyed in the fifteenth century during the Aragonese invasions in the Chianti area.

 

In the early 1700s new dwellings were built, using the same stones, in the exact same spot where the castle had originally stood.  Hence, the construction of the villas belonging to Pianigiani and Ricucci families, which now comprise the Castello di Ama estate headquarters.

 

A document dating to July 1773 contains a report by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, as the Governor of Tuscany, which praised the excellence of the hilly terrain.

 

 

Rated 95 Points by Wine Enthusiast

 

Delicious and elegantly structured, this opens with alluring aromas of fragrant blue flower, black-skinned fruit, eucalyptus and espresso.  On the savory, focused palate, bright acidity and lithe, fine-grained tannins accompany juicy black cherry, mocha, licorice and crushed mint.  Drink through 2028.