Piemaggio, Sangiovese "Le Fioraie" Chianti Classico, Tuscany, Italy 2019

90% Sangiovese with 10% Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo, and Colorino.

Utterly textbook in character, combining earth, bright fruit, and tangy acidity, with notable yet unforced concentration; it is a wine of balance and egoless drinkability. The wine ferments spontaneously in stainless steel during a 3 ½ week maceration, and spends two years aging in a combination of concrete tanks and previously used wooden casks — mainly 25-hectoliter Slavonian oak, with some 500-liter French oak employed as well.

The Piemaggio estate lies in the northwest sector of Castellina-in-Chianti, in the heart of the historical Chianti Classico zone, and traces its roots back to the 11th century. A pieve (church) from the era located at the property’s highest hilltop (maggiore) gives the estate its name. Vines cover 12 hectares worth of Piemaggio’s hillsides, all in the hamlet of La Fioraie (“the flower sellers”).

According to lore, a medieval pilgrim friar passing through the area fainted of exhaustion under the intense Tuscan sun, and was revived to health by a group of three flower vendors who saw him crumple. The friar, carrying the fond memory with him during his subsequent travels, later returned to the area, built a church, and planted vines. While modern medicine may reject such a remedy for reviving consciousness, Piemaggio’s wines certainly possess the ability to resuscitate one’s faith in an often under-inspiring appellation.