2021 Chianti Classico Riserva Marchese Antinori

The 2021 Chianti Classico Riserva Marchese Antinori is particularly strong this year. Red cherry, plum, blood orange and pomegranate infuse the 2021 with notable depth. French oak is better integrated than in the past. There's less extraction today and quite a bit more finesse. This is a terrific showing from Antinori.

The 2021 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione San Sano is stunning wine of the highest level. Bright acids drive through a core of red fruit, blood orange, white pepper, mint and chalk. Linear but not at all austere, the 2021 bristles with energy. The purity here is just mind-blowing. What a wine. Readers who can find it should not hesitate. The salivating, mineral-drenched finish is unforgettable.

This wine sees its fruit sourced from multiple villages: San Casciano, Gaiole, Castellina and Greve. The 2021 Chianti Classico Riserva Villa Antinori is not married to a specific subzone of the appellation because it seeks to embrace a house style rather than a vineyard identity. Aged in tonneaux with some barrique, the wine is rich and lasting but not large. In fact, it remains elegant on the palate with fine tannins and good fruit tension with cherry and blue flowers. Marchesi Antinori General Manager Renzo Cotarella tells me that 2021 is the best vintage he has ever overseen. Ever. He prefers it to recent classics like 2016 and 2010. There was frost in the spring, and the growing cycle was very long. This is something that most grapes, and especially Sangiovese, need in order to exhibit aromatic depth and flavor complexity. "This is an exceptional year," he says, citing the inner energy certainly exhibited by the wines from 2021. I agree, mostly, but not unequivocally. I love the precision and tension inherent to these wines, but I didn't encounter that same breathless vertical lift and linearity that I remember so well in 2016, for example. That was a vintage that managed to effortlessly balance both power and elegance, which is by no means an easy feat. To me, 2021 has the elegance but not the same piercing power that you only get in cooler vintages when sugar and phenolic ripening line up seamlessly. So, while I love these wines, especially the Chianti Classico Riserva Marchese Antinori and the outstanding Tignanello, my money is still on 2016 as the better vintage, speaking generally. But zoom in on one wine and my money is on the 2021 Tignanello over everything else.