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Succulent red and blue fruit dance with smoke, cigar wrapper, warm saddle leather and spice in this seamless ’10 Chianti Classico that does justice to the new Gran Selezione designation. This wine unspools on the palate to show a brocade-like texture, terrific complexity, and breathtaking balance, all culminating in a lingering finish that’s bright with acidity and velvety with tannins. Produced from the best grapes grown on the property, this wine ferments for eight days in temperature-controlled stainless steel, followed by twelve more days of skin contact; after, the wine performs its malolactic fermentation in oak barrels, then ages in barrels for fourteen months before being bottled, where it ages for sixteen months. A bold, delicious wine that explodes with pure Sangiovese fruit, this ’10 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione is a delight to drink right now, but it’ll be even more delicious years down the road.

• Country: Italy
• Region: Toscana
• Sub Region: Siena
• Sub Region/Classification: Chianti Classico
• Commune/Village: Gaiole in Chianti : Gaiole in Chianti

Badia a Passignano Riserva is produced exclusively from the finest grapes of the property of the same name, located in the Chianti Classico area of Tuscany on a total surface of 551 acres, 138 of which planted to vines. The abbey of Passignano, around whose walls the vineyards are situated, is one of the loveliest fortified monasteries of the zone and has been renowned for the quality of its wine for over a thousand years. The Antinori family acquired the land around the monastery (which belongs to the order of the monks of Vallombrosa) in 1987 and ever since then has used the splendid cellars of the abbey for winemaking purposes.