2006 Isole e Olena Vin Santo del Chianti Classico
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Tasting notes
65% Malvasia, 35% Trebbiano Toscano. Light golden brown sienna. Spicy apricot but also some dried grasses and chamomile. Intensely sweet and intensely fresh. Brilliant harmony and length. Viscous but so full of life and baked apple and apricot fruit. Gorgeous and deliciously youthful. (JH)
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Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
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The 2006 Vin Santo del Chianti Classico is a divine dessert wine that boasts the best of this labor-intensive winemaking tradition. Vintners who make Vin Santo will always tell you that they do so for passion. The quantities are so small and the commercial margins so thin, pure passion is the only reason someone would embark on this kind of project. Happily for us wine lovers, people like Paolo De Marchi have that passion. His Vin Santo is one of the best available today. The wine is impeccable and beautiful inside and out. Caramel, maple syrup, roasted pine nut and dried apricot emerge from the bouquet. I find this wine to be simply irresistible for those with a sweet tooth and those without.
The 2006 Vin Santo is quite powerful and viscous in the glass, perhaps a bit more so than is the norm. An exotic mélange of dried fig, honey, sage, baking spices and sweet herbs are all thrust forward. This is one of the most intense Vin Santos I can remember tasting at Isole e Olena. The 220 grams of residual sugar are clearly felt in the wine's heft, yet all the elements are in the right place.
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.