Chianti as a category can be a bit daunting.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got commercial stuff in straw fiascos in the red checkered cloth Italian restaurants, the $100+ single vineyard bottlings from Castello di Ama, and a rainbow of stuff in between.\u00a0 It\u2019s all called Chianti even though some have nothing in common.\u00a0 To further complicate matters, you have a variety of terroirs like Chianti Classico, Rufina, and Greve that make their own unique contribution to the finished wine.\u00a0 Finally, you have individual styles of the wineries themselves.<\/p>\n
While most of the producer names that come to mind fall into more or less in what would be the \u2018traditional\u2019 camp, today we thought we\u2019d touch on a couple that were more \u2018new school\u2019 at least in how they come across.\u00a0 While the whole discussion of \u2018camps\u2019 doesn\u2019t really come up a lot relative to Chianti, we felt the need to share a couple of wines that have a plumper, sweeter core of fruit that gives a more fruit-driven, \u2018modern\u2019 element to their profiles.<\/p>\n
The first was a staple at the Orange store for years, though this is the first time this \u2018regular\u2019 bottling of the Fattoria Basciano Chianti Rufina 2015<\/strong><\/a> has appeared here.\u00a0 We hadn\u2019t seen the wine in a while.\u00a0 The fact that this came from the juicy 2015 vintage made a perfect platform for Basciano’s gregarious stylistic bent.\u00a0 Key words that seem to come up consistently when we talk about Basciano are \u2018lip smacking\u2019 and ‘juicy’.\u00a0 Father Renzo and son Paolo Masi run something of a negociant enterprise with the idea of consistently getting high quality fruit to create enviable quality at attractive prices.\u00a0 This they have done quite well for a long time.<\/p>\n The 2015 has the bright, slippery, ripe black and blue fruit core that should appeal to anyone.\u00a0 The wine is packed with tender fruit, has plenty of energy, and is far too easy to haul off and drink for something from Rufina.\u00a0 At this point we don\u2019t see a lot of the minerally terroir that appears in a supporting role in most efforts from this part of Chianti.\u00a0 This wine is the proverbial, succulent \u2018fastball down the middle\u2019.<\/p>\n Wine Spectator\u2019s descriptors work efficiently here, \u201cPure aromas and flavors of cherry, blackberry and floral gain depth from earth and leafy tobacco accents. Firms up on the finish, with a pleasant astringency.\u201d\u00a0 One doesn\u2019t write paragraphs on this one.\u00a0 One drinks it with relish.\u00a0 The Basciano simply wants to be liked and it succeeds admirably on that score.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let the $12 price scare you either.\u00a0 This delivers plenty of character and value as well.<\/p>\n The Gagliole Chianti Classico Rubiolo 2016 <\/strong><\/a>plays to the same crowd, but for different reasons.\u00a0 We have had a few presentations of this Gagliole bottling in past vintages, but this is the first one to ‘make the cut’.\u00a0 We are probably not going out on too much of a limb to suggest the 2016 vintage may have had something to do with that, ome article suggesting later harvesting during this cooler vintage probably did a lot to elevate and enrich this wine\u2019s fruit core.<\/p>\n It is that outgoing fruit that makes the Rubiolo appealing to a larger audience.\u00a0 Not sure if ‘fruit driven’ and ‘modern’ was the intent here but that is what this delivers.\u00a0 The Rubiolo is 95% Sangiovese, clearly a big beneficiary in the 2016 vintage as a varietal, but also contains five percent Merlot to give the edges a bit of polish.<\/p>\n While this is our first dance with the Rubiolo that we can recall, there seems to be a ready audience with a 91 from Wine Advocate with comments, \u201cThis wine is an absolute steal…\u201d James Suckling tossed a 92 on it and it got two glasses from Gambero Rosso to boot.\u00a0 Plump, seamless, focused on a joyous core of plumy fruit, it is easy to like, and won\u2019t break the bank at $14.98.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chianti as a category can be a bit daunting.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got commercial stuff in straw fiascos in the red checkered cloth Italian restaurants, the $100+ single vineyard bottlings from Castello di Ama, and a rainbow of stuff in between.\u00a0 It\u2019s all called Chianti even though some have nothing in common.\u00a0 To further complicate matters, you … Continue reading “‘Modern’ (Easy Dinking) Chianti”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[161,94,461,460,462,459,69],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3058"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3064,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058\/revisions\/3064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}