Tenuta Di Carleone Chianti Classico 2023

Tenuta di Carleone 2023, Sangiovese without detours

There are wines best told first through their place and the way they are made. This Tenuta di Carleone 2023 puts Sangiovese front and center, with organic farming and eighteen months of aging in stainless steel and concrete vats. I recommend it if you're looking for a bottle rooted in the hills of Chianti, without tasting artifice invented to fill out its portrait.

Between Siena and Florence, the Chianti of Carleone

Tenuta di Carleone sits in the heart of Chianti, in the landscape between Siena and Florence. The estate claims a link to the historic boundaries of Chianti Storico, a way of placing this wine within a long Tuscan winemaking history rather than reducing it to a simple geographic mention. Sean O'Callaghan, an English winemaker described as passionate about terroir, guides the work in the cellar. The vines cover twenty hectares, amid wooded hills, small streams and fertile plains. Farming is organic, and the estate also works according to biodynamic methods.

The grape listed is Sangiovese, hand-harvested after selection in the vineyards. The winemaking described includes indigenous yeasts, extended macerations and limited sulfur intervention. The wine is then aged eighteen months in stainless steel and concrete. One label detail is worth flagging, however: the wine is presented under the name Chianti Classico, while the style indication transmitted classifies it as IGP Toscana. I'd rather point out this discrepancy than resolve it without sufficient information. The available sources describe neither the color, nor the precise aromas, nor the flavors on the palate; I will therefore not attribute cherry, spice or forest-floor notes to it. The communicated profile places it halfway between lightness and body, and between youthfulness and pronounced aging, with a fruity-spicy orientation. A score of 93/100 is also attributed by Parker.

At the table, with dishes of character

I would serve it with game, a roasted white meat, a cut of red meat, or a nice board of cured meats and aged cheeses: these are the pairings suggested for this wine, and they offer several options depending on your meal. For a simpler table, an aged cheese or a few slices of charcuterie are enough to open the tasting without trying to complicate the pairing. Choose it for a dinner where you want to talk about the Sangiovese and the landscape around it, or save it for a Sunday meal that takes its time. Let it breathe a little in the glass, then judge for yourself what its fruit and spices suggest. Here, the appeal also lies in the organic approach and a winemaking that lets the grape variety take center stage. A bottle to share with curiosity, without expecting precise tasting notes that the available information does not confirm.