Santo Stefano 2018 – Chianti Classico Gran Selezione

The wine has a medium-intensity ruby color with slight garnet highlights. The nose is fragrant, gourmand, and complex. It initially expresses tertiary notes of dried leaves, tobacco, undergrowth, and dried rose, combined with aromas of dried fruits (dried cherry, dried blackcurrant), as well as crushed wild strawberry, ripe morello cherry, and crushed raspberry. There is also a gourmand chocolatey hint (dark chocolate, chocolate-covered morello cherry), spicy notes (cinnamon, toasted vanilla in the background, liquorice, tonka bean), as well as roasted bouquet garni and dried mint. The palate is juicy and airy, but with a certain density and tension. The attack is expressive, offering a bitter touch of coffee and bergamot tea, as well as firm, gripping tannins, but quite fine and powdery. Then we find the flavors of dried red cherry, wild strawberry, crushed raspberry, dried raspberry, dried blackcurrant and morello cherry in chocolate, combined with notes of cocoa, dark chocolate with mint, toasted liquorice, coffee, tonka bean and cinnamon, as well as a tertiary touch of dried rose and undergrowth. The finish is persistent, on the good bitterness and the smoky side of bergamot and coffee, as well as a salivating acidity that balances the dry texture of the tannins.