2015 IPSUS Chianti Classico Gran Selezione
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First vintage. ‘Relatively simple’, according to Giovanni Mazzei, but the price isn’t! Their deliberate positioning. The Mazzeis say Ipsus might be the most expensive Chianti Classico but suggest some Castello di Ama wines may be even more so. 2,400 bottles in this first year. Launched in February 2020 – just before lockdown. Aged 24 months in new tonneaux and 8 months in concrete. TA 6 g/l, pH 3.39. Transparent ruby. Not that much nose. Some burnished bonfire notes. Certainly lively and fresh. Stony finish. Long. Delicate. Appetising. (JR)
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Jancis Robinson MW
Jancis Robinson MW
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The final bottle was the 2015 Ipsus from Caggio. This maiden release comes from 6.5 hectares of Sangiovese owned by the Mazzei family, matured 50% new tonneaux and 50% in stainless steel, plus eight months in cement vat. This was the first time I had tasted Ipsus, and I was impressed. Sure, it is primal on the nose and needs another year or two to subsume the oak, but it offers gorgeous scents of ebullient red fruit tinged with crushed violets and a hint of peppermint. The palate has more density than a lot of Chianti Classico and is quite insistent in terms of grip, offering pure blood-orange-infused, luxuriant red fruit toward the grippy finish. It improved with aeration and after a couple of hours was more open and floral. Superb.
This is a new project (and a second, independent brand) headed by the Mazzei family of Castello di Fonterutoli. The Caggio 2015 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Ipsus strives for Sangiovese purity and a sense of place. It achieves both, thanks to careful work in identifying a cool growing site for the Tuscan variety and a classic or traditional approach to winemaking with carefully managed maceration and aging in oak tonneaux. The results are soulful and profound with wild blueberry or raspberry, forest floor, blue flower and clove-flavored orange peel. The tannins are supple and smooth, yet there is enough structure and linearity to carry the wine forward in time. This was a warm and sunny vintage, and I can't imagine a better growing season from which to create an inaugural wine such as this. Ipsus is a new addition to a very limited group of vinous icons from Tuscany.
From a 6.5-ha vineyard within the Il Caggio estate, acquired by Mazzei in 2006 and adjacent to their Fonterutoli property. Silly, distinctive heavy bottle. Definitely Sangiovese this is transparent ruby and a pretty sweet interpretation of Sangiovese but the oak seems a tad intrusive. Halfway to pure Chianti Classico Sangiovese but with one foot still in the last century, which makes it neither one thing nor the other. Do not serve this too warm! But there are many more echt Chianti Classicos for less money. I idly went to Wine-Searcher to see the price and am genuinely dumbfounded. (JR)