Castello di Querceto - Il Picchio Gran Selezione (Chianti Classico) 2017

Castello di Querceto - Il Picchio Gran Selezione (Chianti Classico) 2017 (90 TSW)

The best start of the weekend!
Tuscan blend of 95% Sangiovese and 5% Canaiolo and Colorino. Aging for 12 months in wooden barrels, then 6 months in the bottle.

The label honors the woodpecker, an animal that populates the forest surrounding this vineyard.
It is a wine very attached to the land, which was born in 1988. It is part of the historical collection of Castello di Querceto.

My tasting notes:

In the glass a medium ruby red color.
On the medium(+) nose aromas of blueberries, plumd and black cherries with hints of underbrush, leather, pepper and leather hints.
On the palate dry, medium(+) bodied with medium(+) acidity and medium fine grained tannins. Flavours are a recall of the nose with extra notes of toasted nuts, chocolate, espresso, earth and ripe prunes. The finish has a fleshy, light bitter medium(+) length with lots of power. 

Tastes best with red meat, roast or stewed meat dishes and aged cheeses. 13.5% alcohol

About the winery:

At the beginning of the last century Carlo François bought the property and transformed it from a country residence to an agricultural firm. From then on, Castello di Querceto began to carve out for itself a significant role in the Italian and international wine panorama. In 1924, the estate founded the Chianti Classico Wine Consortium. In 1978 Carlo’s nephew, Alessandro François and his wife Maria Antonietta Corsi decided to get involved in managing the winery.

The winery now owns around 200 hectares of land, of which 60 are vineyards, 6 are olive groves and the rest are chestnut groves and oak woods. Castello di Querceto is surrounded by beautiful countryside on the high hills which form part of the Chianti hill range on the north-eastern edge of the Chianti Classico region.