2018 Nittardi - Chianti Classico Casanuova di Nittardi
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This vintage shows a seal for certified organic fruit. The Nittardi 2018 Chianti Classico Casanuova di Nittardi Vigna Doghessa opens to a medium dark color and shows aromas of dried cherry, blue flower and potting soil. The wine's general taste profile is very faithful to Sangiovese, and you also get a good sense of the vintage with some warm-weather overtones of blackberry confit and soft plum. The tannins are integrated and open-knit. Last time I tasted this wine, my sample was not perfect. But this time around, the wine is singing and soaring.
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Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
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The 2018 Chianti Classico Vigna Doghessa Casanuova di Nittardi opens beautifully with a bit of time in the glass. Darker tonalities of Sangiovese fruit emerge, along with hints of lavender, game, menthol, licorice and tobacco that add character. The 2018 is a powerful wine, but it starts to show more floral lift and silkiness with aeration. This is one of the finer wines I have had from Nittardi of late.
Full bottle 1,028 g. From the single vineyard Vigna Doghessa, in the commune of Castellina in Chianti (Siena) on a south-facing hill at 450 metres (1,500 ft), with a soil full of schist stones. Certified organic. After the extremely hot 2017 vintage, 2018 was more 'normal': a cold winter with snow for a few days, a rainy spring followed by a mild summer. The weather from the middle of August until the harvest was 'very nice without rain and with important diurnal temperature variations'. Harvest of Doghessa was 17–18 September. The label for the 2018 vintage was entrusted to the artist Johannes Heisig. Leon Femfert explains: 'The two paintings that the German artist dedicated to our Chianti Classico are a hymn to earth and the fruits that bring joy and seduce us. While the wrapping paper is his personal vision of our Vigna Doghessa, on the label he painted a Bacchus that offers a glass of wine to Sibyl, muse of all artists.' Aged 14 months in 500-litre French oak (10% new), then four months in concrete before bottling in July 2020. TA 5.8 g/l, pH 3.42. Healthy mid crimson. First impression is purity and freshness: gently peppery/spiced black and dark-red fruit, with an earthy/stony overlay, almost dusty. On the day after opening, it seems even more scented. Terrific freshness here, lots of life and energy, the tannins are extremely fine and moreish, just gently chewy. Elegant even in youth. So fresh and refreshing but with a serious core of fruit. You could enjoy this now with food but there's no hurry and it is sure to gain in complexity, when the more savoury side of Sangiovese emerges. Very little sign of the oak because it is so fully integrated. A lighter style but with length. (JH)