2014 Isole e Olena Chianti Classico
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Tasting notes
Includes 15% Canaiolo. Cold vintage with lots of rain, harvest late October with a fine autumn. Light to mid ruby. Tangy Italianate red fruit, cherry made more savoury by a note of graphite. Scented and inviting. Wonderful freshness of tart red fruit, utterly mouth-watering and moreish. Just ready to approach but no hurry. Super-persistent. (JH)
Critic scores
Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
Walter Speller, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Barberino Val d’Elsa. 80% Sangiovese, 15% Canaiolo, 5% Syrah. Mid ruby with orange tinges. Lifted, peppery, cool and sweet raspberry nose with a savoury edge. Fine, grainy, clinging tannins woven into fine raspberry fruit. Gorgeous balance. Fine yet light. Drink now. (WS)
This wine offers excellent value and with 160,000 bottles produced, it should be easy to find. The 2014 Chianti Classico is 80% Sangiovese, 15% Canaiolo and 5% Syrah, aged in small and large oak barrels for one year. It offers beautifully polished and fine aromas of wild berry, toasted almond, grilled herb and blue violet. Compared to its peers from this difficult vintage, this wine offers noticeably more definition and depth.
The 2014 Chianti Classico is one of the prettiest and most refined wines of the vintage. Sweet red cherry, raspberry, mint and white pepper give the 2014 much of its signature brightness and vibrancy. The cool, late-ripening season produced a lithe Chianti Classico with salivating acidity and mid-weight structure. Of course, those are qualities the Isole e Olena wines tend to have in most vintages, but in 2014, they are accentuated. I imagine the biting acidity will give the 2014 many years of life in the cellar. The 2014 has all the potential to be one of the sleepers of this vintage.
About the producer
Situated north of Castellina, on the western side of Chianti Classico, Isole e Olena was created by the De Marchi family in the 1950s and has since become one of the region’s leading names. It is renowned for its top bottling Cepparello, a pure Sangiovese, as well as its brilliant Chardonnay.