Sangiovese from Chianti can be as rewarding as it is diverse. Now more than ever, one can find a delicious well-made example. What's far harder to find is the special match of vine-to-vigneron that can... Read More

Sangiovese from Chianti can be as rewarding as it is diverse. Now more than ever, one can find a delicious well-made example. What's far harder to find is the special match of vine-to-vigneron that can categorically define terroir. Tempier's Bandol, Huet's Vouvray, Lafarge's Volnay, and Rinaldi's Barolo are a few examples that telegraph a sense of place in 750ml or less. To transport you to the soaring Classico region of Radda, add Caparso's bold and graceful Chianti Classico to that list.

Currently running the show is Paolo Cianferoni, an outspoken farmer-philosopher with over 40 vintages under his belt at his family's 55-year-old estate. Paolo’s father saved the money to buy the farmland by working as a vineyard manager for mega-producer Frescobaldi. Since then, some gradual improvements have been made (the wines have been certified organic since 2005), but the commitment to exist "in symphony with the environment, Italian peasant culture, and the world of wine”, as Paolo puts it, has not changed. The deep respect for the land, and the balance of audacious character and humble elegance, is as refreshingly pure in life as it is in the wine itself.

While it's a joy to spend our drinking time lost in the wine world's endless curiosities, it's the poetry of the classics that recalibrates us to True North. The added brilliance of Caparsa is its dominance of purity over simplicity.