2022 Monte Bernardi Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG

94 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

This is from 1968 plantings in Panzano. 6000 bottles and 200 magnums produced. Blackberry, dark cherry, a distinctly bloody/iron thing here, tobacco, dried herbs and Dutch liquorice. It’s medium-bodied, hazelnuts and chocolate, a sooty feel to tannin, has a brightness to acidity, and finishes dry and gently chalky with good length. It’s kind of old school but in a good way. Charismatic. Feels proper.

90 POINTS

Mike Bennie - The Wine Front

Biodynamic farmed. Old vines. This has some distinct rustic charm, dried blood, ferrous inputs, dark cherry, salted plum, mocha, panforte and coal, dried meat and a faint lift of alpine herbs and black pepper. There’s a juiciness to the palate, a web of very chewy, dusty tannin laced over it all, though a touch gummy through the finish. Quite a bit of persistence, but so too some of that rusticity too. It’s a kind of old school, hands off the wheel style, but bolstered by good tannin management and grip, cool, orangey acidity and an uplift of white balsamic tang.