“The organic Querciabella 2019 Chianti Classico Riserva Querciabella shows richly concentrated fruit with blackberry and cherry layered with light spice and mineral. This wine represents a selection of fruit from Greve, Radda and Gaiole in Chianti, and each parcel is vinified separately before the final blend is made. Production is 19,000 bottles.”

“The Batàr bottling from Querciabella is made from a fifty-fifty blend of pinot bianco and chardonnay, with the wine barrel-fermented and raised in twenty percent new oak. The 2020 Batàr is the new release from the estate and offers up a deep, ripe and complex bouquet of apple, white peach, raw almond, a lovely base of soil, citrus blossoms and a discreet framing of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and nascently complex, with a superb core of fruit, lovely mineral undertow, zesty acids and fine focus and cut on the long, impeccably balanced and classy finish. Readers may recall from my estate feature on Querciabella a few years back, their Batàr ages long and gracefully and is really not into its apogee until a decade out from the vintage, so it is still very early days for the 2020 vintage here. It is quite tasty today, but still quite primary and additional layers of complexity are sure to emerge with further cellaring. 2023-2050.”

“The 2020 vintage of Chianti Classico from Querciabella is a beautiful wine on both the nose and palate. Readers may recall that this bottling is made from one hundred percent sangiovese, raised in a combination of barriques and tonneaux and with ten percent of the oak new each year. The 2020 version comes in at fourteen percent octane and offers up a beautifully complex nose of cherries, red plums, cigar wrapper, lovely spice tones, a lovely foundation of soil, 28 gentle notes of cedar and a dollop of fresh oregano in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and complex, with a lovely core of fruit, fine soil inflection, moderate tannins and fine length and grip on the well-balanced finish. This is certainly approachable today, but a year or two in the cellar will allow the backend tannins to fall away completely and the wine to drink with a more velvety texture. First class Chianti. 2023-2045+.”

The 2019 Camartina from Querciabella was once again raised in only twenty percent new oak, which gives it a far less new oaky personality from most of its contemporary Super Tuscans. The wine is made from its customary cépages of seventy percent cabernet sauvignon and thirty percent sangiovese and comes in at 14.5 percent alcohol in 2019. The wine delivers a beautifully refined bouquet of red and black cherries, cigar ash, a complex base of soil tones, a gentle touch of fresh oregano, woodsmoke and cedary oak. On the palate the wine is deep, pure and full-bodied, with great focus and grip, a superb core of fruit, outstanding soil inflection, ripe, buried tannins and a long, tangy and beautifully complex, balanced finish. This is a great wine in the making. 2035-2085.

An organic blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Sangiovese, the 2019 Camartina (in a heavy glass bottle) shows dark fruit nuances with savory tobacco and spice. This wine is mostly driven by the heft and concentration of the French grape, but it also shows some of the bright cherry and freshness of the Italian grape. Some 10,000 bottles were released.