2013 Fattoria Poggiopiano
Chianti Classico
Regular Price $24.99
Sale Price $19.99
So, here’s the thing…to a lot of people, the idea of drinking a Chianti Classico is far more enjoyable than the reality of it. That’s because Chianti Classico is a wine that is best enjoyed with food, not as a cocktail. Quite frankly, the concept of consuming wine without food is foreign in Italy.
Wine in Italy has always been part of the table, a vital part of the meal, so much so that, one who might be, er, soused, is not considered to have drank too much, but rather to have not eaten enough.
Back to this wine. Its 100% Sangiovese, and therefore, full of bright cherry and earthy aromas, with rich, dark cherry and herbal flavors and taut, brusque acidity. This is not a gentle, soft, and easy wine, but rather a complex, tannic and ultimately, enlivening wine, especially with food. Pasta. Pizza. Steak. Pork, Chicken. It doesn’t need to be overly complicated. Almost any food will do.
You see, the big, oaky, ripe, sweet, alcoholic, and syrupy red wines that are alleged to be great, may be delicious, but are generally not very complex and a poor choice for nearly all foods (unless, you really don’t want to taste the food. They are perfect, then.) For a wine to ‘pair’ well with food, acidity is essential. Acidity balances flavors, cuts through fats, and causes you to salivate, which spreads the flavors throughout your mouth, hitting every taste bud. The monster wines don’t/can’t do that.
On the other hand, without the weight and fat of food, this lovely wine comes off as lean and ungenerous, and a bit bitter. No wonder the know-nothing wine commentators don’t know how to value wines like this…they don’t sit and eat and sip and converse, but rather, rush through dozens of wine at a sitting, forming conclusions from one hurried sip after another. It’s not surprising that their opinions are invalid; they don’t consume wine the way you do.