2021 IPSUS Chianti Classico Gran Selezione
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Tasting notes
This is a special limited release made in a dedicated winery with fruit from a prime vineyard site by the Mazzei family in Castellina in Chianti. The Caggio 2021 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Ipsus is infused with elegant dark fruit, blackcurrant, blackberry and blue flower. However, there is a spicy oak-driven note that is a little too prominent at this young stage. The wine is matured in a combination of clay amphorae followed by tonneaux and botte grande, and you feel the effects on the mouthfeel that is both polished and fine. It offers a bright style overall with balanced acidity and many fine-tuned flavors that are straight from the Sangiovese playlist. However, I'm going to suggest a few more years of cellar aging to tone down the oak notes.
Critic scores
Average Score
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The 2021 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Ipsus is magnificent. It’s also the first wine from the Mazzei family’s ambitious new Caggio winery that truly captures the magic of this evocative site in Castellina. Wild cherry, orange peel, exotic spice, new leather and white pepper are some of the many notes that build as the 2021 shows off its wonderfully complex, beguiling personality. The winemaking approach is quite different relative to the approach at Fonterutoli. Ipsus sees long fermentations with submerged-cap maceration for some lots, followed by aging in various vessels, including larger format oak and ceramic. Not surprisingly, the winemaking team needed a few years to dial everything in. The 2021 suggests they have started to do so. It's a superb wine by any measure.
Ipsus, from the Il Caggio estate in Castellina in Chianti, is fully in its stride with this 7th vintage. The aromatics are enveloping, lavender, violets, roses, savoury but fully ripe berry fruit, this is exceptional quality, full of vibrant energy, impossible to resist. To be released beginning of October 2025. Single plot at 350m, Mazzei family owners.