Chianti Classico, Riserva, Baron Ugo, 2011

At 570 meters above sea level this South East-facing vineyard is the highest on the Monteraponi estate, indeed one of the very highest in Chianti Classico. The soils are intensely rocky and poor - this is pure hard limestone, known locally as Albarese. In the very best vintages the juice from the Baron d’Ugo vineyard is fermented separately and aged in large French and Slavonian oak casks for 36 months. The extremities of climate and soil are clear in this wine, it is a Chianti Classico that needs time to open up. Surly at first, the brilliant character of this wine does gradually unfurl with aeration, exhibiting very intense flavours of cherry, cherry stone, plums, dry stones, rock, salt and flint. Long, vital and expansive. Like the greatest of wines there is a sense of huge strength without turning to heaviness.