2014 Chianti Classico: Better Late Than Never

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | OCTOBER 7, 2016  

Mother Nature gave growers fits in 2014, but picture perfect conditions during the last month of the growing season saved what had been a very challenging vintage up until then. The 2014s are vibrant, pointed, mid-weight wines with bracing acidity and energy. This report covers mostly new releases from the 2014 and 2013 vintages, both cool, late-ripening years in which quality is variable. The best wines are striking and well worth seeking out, but readers will have to be selective. 

Isole e Olena, Barberino Val d’Elsa

The 2014 Growing Season and Wines 

Two thousand fourteen will be remembered as a cool, overcast and damp year. I remember the summer well, as I spent most of it in Italy. In addition to the challenging growing conditions – some of the most difficult many growers had ever seen – producers had to deal with the Drosophila suzukii, a fruit fly that appeared just as grapes began to approach full ripeness.

Bloated grapes were pushed to limit. Skins were fragile and disease pressure was high. Then something amazing happened. The weather improved dramatically from approximately mid-September to mid-October as classic fall conditions with dry weather, warm days and cool nights set in. By that time, grapes in less favored positions were already compromised and had to be picked. But in places where grapes were healthy and skins were thick, the grapes were able to take full advantage of the spectacular last month of the growing season. If this sounds familiar, it should. Conditions were similar across much of Northern Europe, as Vinous readers will have likely already seen in other recent reports. 

Of course, Chianti Classico is a large area with myriad sub-zones. Consider that, as an example, Querciabella harvested their vineyards in Greve in mid-September but only brought in their Gaiole fruit a full month later. A month’s difference in picking times between areas within the same region is significant, but in a year where the last month makes or breaks the vintage, those few precious weeks can very well be the difference between average and exceptional quality.

Because of their high acidities, in many cases, the 2014s will remind old-timers of the Chianti Classicos of a previous generation, but the wines may come as a shock to consumers who are more familiar with recent warmer vintages. As readers will discover in the accompanying notes, I tasted a few wines that were quite dark and intense, something that could only have been achieved through concentration in the cellar as winemakers struggled to reach better skin to juice ratios than what Mother Nature provided. Most growers plan on bottling their top labels. Production will be down sharply as severe selection was essential, both in the field and later in the cellar. I expect to see at least a few monumental, captivating wines when the top selections are released next year.