Top of the Tuscan reds
Tuscany is the best known wine region in Italy and one of the most beautiful in the world. Cypress trees line the rolling hillsides that lead up to fortress villages with vines tumbling down the gentle slopes. Those slopes is where the best Tuscan wines come from and of course their most famous expression is Chianti and Chianti Classico but not all Chiantis are created equal, as we have all discovered when ordering a glass at a pizzeria or even a great restaurant.
This month our wine team at Regional Wines & Spirits has been busy tasting through interesting new Tuscan reds in a quest to find the best of the bunch to add to our Italian wine shelves. It's a tough job and all that jazz, but someone has to do it and we are very pleased to have selected two new wines from a very old winemaking family, Frescobaldi.
The Frescobaldi family has been making wine in Tuscany for 700 years, beginning in the early 1300s. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Florentine wine house provided wine to the Court of England and to the Papal Court in Rome, among many others. And earlier still, the Frescobaldis established relationships and commercial ties with the workshops of artists such as Donatello, Michelozzo Michelozzi, and Filippo Brunelleschi, among many more.
Two new Frescobaldi wines in store
* But wait there's more - all of our Brunellos are on special this month too.
2021 Frescobaldi Perano Chianti Classico RRP $54.99
Chianti Classico is one of the greatest expressions of the fabulous noble Sangiovese grape and this riserva wine has spent an impressive 24 months in Slavonian oak barrels aging. This softens Sangiovese's edgy fresh acidity, as does additional time aging in bottle, prior to release.
Flavours run a broad spectrum of flavours from ripe black berries, cherry, wood and spice into a beautifully complex wine with lovely length and excellent potential for further aging in your cellar or dark, cool corner.
Frescobaldi Nipozzano Riserva Chianti Rufina RRP $45.99
Evocative in name and in flavour, Frescobaldi's Nipozzano Riserva Rufina Chianta is named after the commanding Castello Nipozzano, a beautiful place in a stunning region. Savoury aromas intermingle seamlessly in this very good Chianti, which is a riserva; meaning it has been aged for longer than a typical Chianti. It is also from Rufina, the smallest of Chianti's seven main sub regions - and reverred for high quality wines.
* Pop in store to learn more and buy these outstanding wines