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What We Say 2003 Chianti Classico
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[Welcome to Accolades Week at The Wine Spies! All this week, we’ll be featuring wines that have won awards or high praise from judges and wine writers.]
Mission Codename: Black Rooster
Operative: Agent Pinot
Objective: Recover the Black Rooster
Mission Status: Successful. Mission Complete
Wine Subject: 2003 Podere la Capella Chianti Classico
Awards: 3 Glasses, or “Tre Bicchieri”, the highest award in Italy
Wine Spies Tasting Profile:
Look – Deep pomegranate
Smell – Strong initial nose of licorice, then ripe plum tomato vine and earth
Taste – Smooth in the mouth, this wine exhibits great character, with a fullness of black raisin, mineral and twig (in a good way!). Long after you sip the wine, the flavors fade and change.
Conclusion – This is a perfect Chianti Classico that begs for your repeat attention.
Wine Spies Deep Mission Background:
Mission Summary:
After mission briefing, I traveled to San Donato in Tuscany, Italy where I was to rendezvous with my guide, Filipo. A young man of 22, Filipo was an apprentice vineyard manager at a nearby winery. Filipo was visibly nervous when I told him that I needed to meet with local grape-growing legend, Natascia Rossini. Filipo asked me if I was sure that I wanted to meet with Miss Rossini and he explained that I might not be ready – and that perhaps her wine might not be the one for us.
“Agent Pinot,” He said. “I please suggest that you choose maybe a Chianti that is more normal and more – how you say – available.”
I replied, “What do you mean?”
“Miss Rossini and her father farm only the smallest amount of Chianti Classico. The farm is organic and the wine is maybe too good to lose any to your American friends.”
He went on to explain that wines produced at Podere la Capella, where miss Rossini grows her fabled grapes, are made under the supervision of consulting winemaker Luca d’Attoma. “Yes, that Luca d’Attoma,” he assured me.
This made me want the wine even more and when Filipo admitted that the Podere la Capella Chianti Classico was among the finest he had ever tasted, I had to insist that he take me to the winery.
After a short but exceedingly bumpy trip by Vespa through the Tuscan hills, we arrived at the exquisite Podere la Capella vineyards. As I breathe in the air, I look around and am transported to another time. Across the field I spy a lovely young Italian maiden and imagine that she is calling out to me to come in from the fields after a day toil, tending grapes under the hot Tuscan sun…
“Pinot! Agent Pinot…”
Shaken from my reverie, I smile dumbly at Filipo who is now waving me over to the stone walled winery. I follow him through the door and into a huge room that is filled with barrels. I am ushered into a small, dimly lit room. Small bright lights from above light the fine crystal glasses that line a long, high table.
A woman appears from a door that I had not seen before. Silently she nods to me and then pours me a glass of deep red wine. She motions for me to take the glass. As I take my first taste, she set the bottle down in one of the light pools. Instantly visible to me is the image of the Black Rooster on the neck of the bottle. She gives me a sly smile and then she turns and walks from the room.
When I return my attention to the bottle, I see a note sitting underneath. The note reads:
“Agent Pinot: To honor your service to other Italian wineries, we grant you the limited number of twenty cases of our wine. Please note that we produce less than 400 cases in total among all of our wines, so this is an exceptional quantity.”
Mission Conclusion:
I return to Central Command, having secured 20 cases of this wonderful Chianto Classico. If any of our Field Operatives or new recruits love Chianti, I recommend that they stock up on this one. I don’t think that we’ll see any more of it.
The region where this wine came from can be seen in this satellite photo.
Wine Spies Technical Wine Analysis:
Soil typology: clay soil with high quantities of calacreous stones, marl and alberese (limestone rich in marl)
Land average: 350 mt. above sea level
Average density per hectare: 5000 vine stocks
Type of vines: Spurred cord and guyot
Blend (uvaggio): Sangiovese (90%) and Merlot (10%)
What the Winery Says
Podere La Capella
What follows is information taken from the English language version of the winemakers website:
About the wine:
Vibrant ruby red.
Intense aromas with reminescents of ripe fruit and liquorice.
Agreable and balanced soft taste with a long lasting finish.
Chianti Classico is perfect with pork and boar stews and grilled meats.
About Us:
The estate belongs to the Rossini family since 1979, when Mr. Bruno, native of Veneto, integrated the growing of vines and olives with the cultivation of apple and pear~trees. Mr. Bruno Rossini, with the help of renowned experts and collaborators, soon became a fine connoisseur of the soil and its qualities and even if at the beginning he just sold the grapes, in the following years he couldn’t resist the temptation to express his own passion and competence by becoming himself a producer.
From 1995 the «Podere la Cappella» started producing its own wine with the excellent brands ‘Chianti Classico’ and ‘Corbezzolo’. In 1996 the company gave birth to ‘Cantico’ and started its expansion, thanks also to the precious contribution of Miss Natascia, the daughter of Mr. Bruno Rossini.
All the products of the company are grown with strictly biological methods.
In the park of the estate you can visit the small church of “S. Maria a Cerbaia”, mentioned for the first time in 1043. The church hosts some very precious artistic works, like a painting of a Madonna with the infant Jesus oh the lap, which experts date back to the end of the 13th century and some earthenware high relieves representing the way of the cross.
