90pts Vinous
The 2023 Pian del Ciampolo is terrific. Rich and layered in the glass, Pian del Ciampolo is an undeniable success in 2023. It offers fantastic depth and presence but no heaviness. Macerated red cherry, mint, cedar, sweet pipe tobacco and cinnamon are some of the many nuances that meld together. Pliant, silky tannins wrap it all up in style. A closing flourish of floral overtones invites a second taste. Drinking Window: 2025 – 2035 - By Antonio Galloni on July 2025

Even after all these years, Montevertine remains a reference point in Chianti Classico. The young 2023s show the natural richness and volume of a year marked by a very hot summer. Conditions were more moderate in 2022. That comes through in wines that offer rich, layered fruit shaped by a warm, dry season tempered by a cool finish and a harvest that stretched into October. Readers will find a more classic Montevertine style in the 2022s, of course keeping in mind that is in today’s context, where the wines are much more approachable young than they once were. When I started tasting these wines in the 1990s, young vintages were hard as nails.

As a reminder, Pian del Ciampolo is the estate’s version of Chianti Classico. It is Sangiovese with a bit of Canaiolo and Colorino aged in cask. Montevertine is a more serious Sangiovese-based wine, also with Canaiolo and Colorino, from the estate’s younger vines and aged in cask. Pergole Torte is 100% Sangiovese from the estate’s oldest vineyards and top blocks that spends one year in French oak barrels and a second year in cask.

This year Montevertine is also releasing Il Duemileventuno di Sergio Manetti, a special bottling made to commemorate founder Sergio Manetti’s 100th birthday of that is a selection of Le Pergole Torte from the estate’s oldest vines planted 1968 and 1982 that spent two years in a single 16HL cask. When Sergio Manetti first conceived Le Pergole Torte, ripeness was hard to come by in Chianti Classico, especially in Radda. French oak helped give the wines some of the textural richness and depth that Mother Nature simply could not provide. Tasting this wine naturally begs the question as to whether French oak is truly necessary in Pergole Torte today given much warmer, drier growing seasons. These magnums will be quite expensive, but beyond that I wonder if this wine opens the door to a more contemporary style for Pergole Torte.