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Piemaggio, Chianti Classico “Le Fioraie”

Today’s wine is immensely satisfying on every level—deeply concentrated, pitch-perfect in its varietal expression, smoothly textured after several years of bottle age.

Within the realm of Chianti Classico, I’d place it at the fuller end of the style spectrum: It’s approaching Brunello di Montalcino-level concentration, but it is refreshingly free of ‘makeup’ (i.e. wood influence) and all about the full-throated expression of the Sangiovese grape. This is the kind of wine that makes you do a double-take (as opposed to a spit-take) when you see its price. It costs what? Sign me up! Loaded with brambly black cherry fruit and a complementary dose of forest-floor savor, Piemaggio’s “Le Fioraie” is quintessential Tuscan Sangiovese in its peak drinking window. I drink a glass of this and think, yes, this is it. This is what I’m looking for. Not only does it show how age-worthy good Chianti can be, it makes me long to return to Tuscany for a firsthand look!

For the moment, however, I’ll have to content myself with a few more bottles of this. Piemaggio is a small property just outside Castellina in Chianti, toward the southern (Siena) end of the Chianti Classico DOCG zone. Their 12 hectares of vineyards are on south- and southwest-facing slopes in the hamlet of Fioraie (thus the wine’s name, which means “the flower-sellers”), with the classic mix of galestro and albarese marls (galestro contains more sandstone, albarese more limestone). These crumbly, rocky soils are considered the key to success with the Sangiovese, which is very sensitive to site and, like Pinot Noir, mutates easily (most of the Sangiovese I’ve tried grown in the loamy soils of California lacks the tension and woodsy savor that characterizes Tuscan Sangiovese—there’s just nothing like it).

Perhaps not surprisingly, Piemaggio is an estate dating to the 12th century (such historic places are around every corner in the Chianti Classico), with ruins of many of its original buildings still on site. Within the bucolic setting the wines are crafted in a relatively ‘modern’ way, with fermentation taking place in stainless steel vats and aging done in a combination of cement vats and French oak barrels of varying capacity. Today’s 2013 spent a total of 18 months aging in cement and barrel (a mixture of 5- and 25-hectoliter liter casks), then 3 months in bottle before its initial release. Having spent more time in bottle still, today’s 2013 has knit together beautifully—the youthful sharp edges of Sangiovese have been sanded down and the oak has had a chance to integrate, resulting in a deep, soulful, smooth-textured red with all of its components in terrific balance.

In the glass, the 2013 “Le Fioraie” is a deep, translucent ruby with only a slight hint of brick orange at the rim, with textbook Sangiovese aromas of ripe black cherry, black raspberry, plum, violets, underbrush, leather, wild herbs, and black pepper. Comprised of 90% Sangiovese with the remaining 10% split among the traditional Chianti blending varieties (Colorino, Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo), this is nearing full-bodied by Chianti standards but doesn’t present as an oaky or ‘international’ wine. This is authentic, savory Sangiovese through and through, and there’s still lots of delicious drinking ahead of it: While its tannins have softened there’s still plenty of acidic lift to propel this wine forward for another 5-7 years. Not bad for a $32 bottle of wine! This stuff is tailor-made for bistecca of all types—yes it will pair nicely with countless other dishes, but all I want to do is get some bone-in ribeyes, shower them in sea salt and cracked black pepper, and sear them hard. Decant a bottle about 30 minutes before service in large Bordeaux stems and I guarantee your guests will think they’re drinking an expensive Brunello. It’s the real deal. Enjoy!

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