2021 Castello di Bossi Chianti Classico Riserva Berardo Tuscany 6pk 6x750ml

The first tower of Castello di Bossi rose in 1099, a medieval fortress that watched over the southern hills of Chianti Classico for nearly a millennium. Florentine troops destroyed it in 1478; it passed through the hands of the Ricasoli and Ugurgieri families before being reimagined as a fortified villa during the Grand Ducal era. In 1984, the Bacci family acquired the estate and has quietly built it into one of the appellation's most respected addresses.

The Berardo Riserva is the estate's top expression of Sangiovese, sourced from the historic vineyards in Castelnuovo Berardenga — the quieter, more structured corner of Chianti Classico. This is Sangiovese built for the cellar, not the shelf, released only after extended aging and reserved for fruit from the estate's best parcels.

The 2021 vintage exhibited great depth of fruit, balancing acidity and alcohol with confident rather than arrogant tannins. Spring frost was followed by a hot, dry summer, with cooler temperatures in September that encouraged slow ripening. Early September mornings dropped as low as 3°C while days reached 28-30°C — the kind of diurnal swing that favors acidity, perfume, and polyphenolic complexity. The 2021 Riservas are amply structured and textural, with firm but ripe tannins backed up by dense fruit.

In the glass: broad and fleshy weight, rich black cherry and plum aromas integrated with cedar, sweet cooking spices, chocolate, and saddle leather. Dense and structured on the palate with the weight to cellar. This is Chianti Classico with the depth and spine to evolve over the next decade, showing what Sangiovese does when it's given time and terroir worth the wait.