2017 Tenuta Di Renieri Chianti Classico

2017 Tenuta Di Renieri Chianti Classico

Vintage: 2017
Region: Tuscany, Italy (Chianti Classico DOCG)
Winery: Renieri
Varieties: Sangiovese
Price: $16 (at Total Wine)
Rating: 93 Points
My Rating: 91 Points

The Review: After two of the most legendary vintages in Tuscan wines ('15 and '16), the renowned region was bound to have a little bit of a slowdown. The 2017 vintage was met with its share of challenges, but many famous producers still managed to put out a great product as they always do. Now while I would totally encourage you to go seek out a 2015 or 2016 Tuscan wine (Castellani, a producer I've already written about has an awesome 2015 Chianti Classico), I drank the 2017 Tenuta di Renieri Chianti Classico for Christmas dinner, so I wanted to write about it. I've also always personally thought that making a good wine during a perfect vintage doesn't really say anything about the winery... If you make bad wine in a perfect vintage, you just suck. It's much more impressive to make a good wine in a challenging vintage.

This wine also provides me a good opportunity to talk about one of the more confusing things about Italian wines. The naming systems of regions and wines in Italy are a touch confusing, so I think it's useful to address some of the conventions. For example- in the famous region of Tuscany, Chianti is a subregion within Tuscany. Where things start to get interesting is the "Classico" part. When the regions were originally drawn up, Italian wine was a lot less popular than it is now. As the country became more known for wine, producers that were located near certain famous subregions began begging the country to let them label their wines under that subregion (better for marketing). The Italian government graciously expanded the boundaries of these regions, but the vineyards within the original boundaries became known as "Classico." So, wines labeled as "Chianti Classico" come from within the original boundaries of Chianti. Fun right? The second thing you'll see a lot in Italian wines is the usage of "Riserva." This one is a bit simpler, as wines labeled as "riserva" have been aged according to certain local laws.

The 2017 Tenuta di Renieri Chianti Classico is a really solid wine from the famed Tuscan producer, Renieri. It received a 93 rating from James Suckling, but I personally think Mr. Suckling overshot this one a bit because he owns a house in Tuscany. The aromas show nice ripe red cherries and some raspberry, as well as some baking cocoa, tobacco, and some nice cedary spice. All of these are super classic aromas of Tuscan wines. The taste showed very fresh ripe cherry with some more subtle currant and raspberry. There were some more delicate aromas of baking spices and cedar, as well as some leather and a bit of earth.

This wine showed great balance and had a nice fresh acidity with a long finish. For the price, it's a great pick up and a classic example of what you'd expect from the region and a good find from a well-known producer. Also, Tuscan wines go great with all Italian foods including, but not limited to, spaghetti.

drink what you like,

db

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