{"product_id":"piemaggio-le-fioraie-chianti-classico-tuscany-italy-2022","title":"Piemaggio 'Le Fioraie' Chianti Classico, Tuscany, Italy 2022","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThere are wines whose beauty begins with flavor, and others that announce themselves first through perfume. Piemaggio’s 2022 “Le Fioraie” belongs emphatically to the latter camp: an extraordinarily aromatic Chianti Classico whose first impression is a rush of red flowers, wild herbs, ripe cherries and the unmistakably dusty, savory perfume of Sangiovese grown in the hills of Tuscany. And wines like this continue to make an awfully persuasive case that, for those of us who care most about terroir, Chianti Classico remains one of the great places left in the wine world to spend money. Here you can still buy a seriously farmed, site-specific wine whose aromas and structure tell you something tangible about where it grew and how it was made without paying the extraordinary premium now attached to comparable craftsmanship in Burgundy and so many other famous European regions. If this level of vineyard character, transparency and cellar skill came packaged with a more fashionable French postcode, I have little doubt that the bottle would cost considerably more.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePiemaggio is based at Le Fioraie in Castellina in Chianti, with vineyards climbing from roughly 350 to 480 meters above sea level. This is superb Sangiovese country: relatively high, ventilated hillsides and soils rich in the fractured limestone and marl locally known as alberese and galestro. The estate’s name for this wine is wonderfully literal—Le Fioraie is the place itself—and Piemaggio has used the image of three flower sellers as its emblem since the 1950s. There is an old local story behind those three women, but what matters in the glass is that this is a wine with an unusually strong sense of place. Castellina can give Sangiovese a beautiful tension between warmth and altitude, producing wines with generous fruit but also the lifted perfume, mineral austerity and refreshing acidity that distinguish great Chianti Classico from merely pleasant Tuscan red wine.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe blend is traditional: roughly 90% Sangiovese, completed by small amounts of Canaiolo, Colorino and Ciliegiolo. That supporting cast matters. Rather than making the wine darker, sweeter or more international in character, the old Tuscan varieties seem to broaden the aromatic register of Sangiovese while leaving its essential personality intact. The cellar work follows the same philosophy. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel with a long maceration, followed by élevage in a combination of concrete and large, seasoned wooden vessels. There is no attempt to bury the fruit beneath new oak or manufacture grandeur. Instead, the winemaking gives the vineyard room to speak, preserving the wine’s freshness while allowing its savory, earthy and floral dimensions to emerge.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnd 2022 gives “Le Fioraie” a particularly seductive personality. It was a warm year, but the elevation, surrounding woodland and airflow around these vineyards helped Piemaggio retain the freshness that Sangiovese desperately needs. The result has the generosity of the vintage without losing the nervous energy of Chianti Classico: ripe red fruit rather than jam, supple tannin rather than heaviness, and an almost startling amount of perfume. This is serious wine, but not solemn wine. It has enough concentration and structure to develop beautifully in bottle, yet there is very little reason to keep your hands off it now.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eServe at approximately 62°F in a generous Burgundy stem. The color is luminous ruby-red, still youthful and bright rather than opaque. The nose is the star: sour and ripe cherry, crushed raspberry, dried violet and rose petals emerge first, followed by rosemary, tobacco leaf, warm earth, anise and that wonderfully ferrous, stony Tuscan character that seems to hover somewhere between mineral and herb. On the palate, the 2022 is medium-bodied but surprisingly concentrated, with juicy red fruit wrapped around fine-grained tannins and a bright seam of Sangiovese acidity. The finish turns increasingly savory, with dried herbs, cherry skin, earth and gentle spice lingering after the fruit recedes. Pair it with Peposo all’Imprunetina, the historic beef-and-black-pepper stew of the hills south of Florence. Beef slowly braised in Chianti gives the wine enough richness to push against, while garlic and black pepper draw out its savory and herbal character; most importantly, the dish’s wine-soaked juices meet Sangiovese’s acidity and tannin in precisely the way Tuscan food and Tuscan wine have evolved to do together. It is difficult to imagine a more regionally faithful expression of Chianti at the table.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elevage","offers":[{"title":"750ml","offer_id":47533210140828,"sku":"CAUB2609-PIEM22CHCL-750","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0694\/6937\/2572\/files\/Piemaggio_LeFioraie_ChiantiClassico_Tuscany_Italy2022WEB.png?v=1788546230","url":"https:\/\/thecaubleist.com\/products\/piemaggio-le-fioraie-chianti-classico-tuscany-italy-2022","provider":"The Caubleist","version":"1.0","type":"link"}