2023 Chianti Classico La Brancaia

Parker - Monica Larner 91, 2025 - 2030, 

The organic Brancaia 2023 Chianti Classico shows lovely primary intensity with dark cherry and blackcurrant. Barbara Widmer and her team strive for freshness and an easy-drinking experience with this charming wine. Maintaining fruit freshness and elegance is a main goal of this estate, but it also strives to push beyond the classic parameters of Chianti Classico in terms of complexity and depth. I love the brightness of the primary fruit in this wine. A total of 40,000 bottles were released.

Brancaia has vineyards in Chianti Classico for cool-climate wines and in Maremma for full-bodied expressions. The estate is run by Barbara Widmer. She and her team have recently acquired more vineyard land in the Radda UGA that could potentially become 12 hectares of vineyards, with six hectares of Sangiovese currently in production and 1.5 hectares of olive trees. In addition, they signed a long-term lease in the Castellina UGA to farm a site that is planted to Sangiovese. This area could potentially have 10 hectares of vines, including three hectares that are already in production. Brancaia has also recently started to make a sparkling wine with Merlot from their Maremma estate. The resulting metodo classico brut is called "Rosa," and the wine is sold only at the estate for the moment.