Vertical Tasting of Castello di Monsanto's Chianti Classico Il Poggio Riserva Located high in the hills of Barberino Val d'Elsa in Chianti 
Classico, the splendid villa of Monsanto dominates the valley below.&nbsp; 
Monsanto ("my saint") was named in honor of Saint Ruffiniano, who died here in 
998 B.C., along with 150 other people involved in a battle.Castello
 di Monsanto is widely considered one of the top dozen Chianti 
Classico estates of today, especially if its top wine, the Chianti 
Classico Riserva Il Poggio, is mentioned.&nbsp; Like many other famous Italian 
wine estates, Monsanto's fame is only relatively recent; it was barely known prior to the 1960s.&nbsp; Originally, Monsanto 
wasn't even Monsanto:&nbsp; it was known as the Palloni estate, which belonged
 to two sisters who did not get along and had carved the property into two. Then came Aldo Bianchi.&nbsp; While visiting the area one 
day in the late 1950s, he fell in love with the natural beauty of the 
place (he wasn't mistaken:&nbsp; I strongly recommend a visit to what is one 
of Italy's top 10 or 20 most beautiful wine estates) and bought the
 first half of the Palloni estate in 1961.&nbsp; He and son Fabrizio were able
 to acquire the remaining half in 1965, changing the estate's name in 
the process to the one that has become world-famous.&nbsp; It is noteworthy 
that many of Castello di Monsanto's most famous vineyards such as Il 
Poggio, La Chiesa and Sornano had already been planted at the time, and
 so this is one wine estate in Italy that has been able to rely on old 
vines through the years.&nbsp; Replanting began, one small parcel at a 
time, in 1963 and 1964; Il Poggio proved particularly difficult in this 
respect, as dynamite was needed to blow up the extremely hard rock subsoil
 in order to allow the vines's roots to penetrate deeper.In the beginning, 
Fabrizio, a true gentleman farmer with a vision and discipline that 
few shared, limited himself to making small batches of artisanal wines with his uncle; 1962 was their first vintage.&nbsp; However, Fabrizio's 
natural curiosity and quest to make the best possible wines led him to try many different experiments in winemaking, and so by 1967 he had already experimented with longer, hotter macerations, eliminated the stalks (essentially unheard of in Italy back then) and, 
even more courageously, jettisoned all white grapes from his Chianti 
blend, which at the time was an illegal practice.&nbsp; In terms of his viticulture, he 
was also one of the first to change over to a mono-variety agriculture, 
one in which vines were grown in specific vineyards and not amid corn 
fields, olive trees and other crops.Fabrizio's daughter Laura came to work full-time on the estate in 1989.&nbsp; After having completed law studies and 
spending a brief period in that world, she decided that home was where her heart 
was.&nbsp; "My first harvest, 1989, was a horrible one; I wanted to cry every
 day," she recalled.&nbsp; "Fortunately, this vintage was followed up by the magical 
1990; if not, who knows, I might have run away from Monsanto again."&nbsp; 
Since 2000 she has been running the estate full-time, although Fabrizio is
 on hand to help out.&nbsp; In 2000, a full-time winemaker--Andrea Giovannini, previously at Ornellaia--was also brought
 on board. Although 
Castello di Monsanto is known for many different wines, it is the 
Chianti Classico Riserva Il Poggio that has made this estate's reputation.&nbsp; This very ageworthy, silky yet powerful wine is from a true cru, five hectares of vines with many different exposures; the 
vines are planted parallel to the side of the hill, at an altitude between 280 and 320 meters on very poor, friable galestro 
soil.&nbsp; The modern-day Il Poggio wine, made without the inclusion of 
white grapes and using more modern winemaking practices and a percentage of grapes 
from the newer plantings, was born in 1968.&nbsp; However, I have been 
following this wine since I first got the wine bug, and I can 
guarantee that the more old-fashioned wines made prior to '68 can be exceptional when kept in a good cellar, including the 1962. I point out that the Riserva Il Poggio (as well as&nbsp;Monsanto's non single-vineyard&nbsp;Chianti Classico Riserva) are always fairly shut down when young, and really need five to eight years of bottle age to begin showing all they have to offer. The wines 
reported on in this article were tasted on three different occasions in Rome during
 the last two years, in February and June of 2011 and again
 in late November of 2012 at my home. The wines for the first two 
tastings came directly from the estate and were tasted in the 
presence of Laura Bianchi.&nbsp; The most recent tasting featured 
bottles from my own private cellar, which I purchased shortly after release--and not from auctions, overseas venues or wine 
stores with dubious storage facilities.&nbsp; I was able to include a few more vintages that I did not have the chance to try in the 
other two tastings. The tasting notes below refer to the November 2012 
tasting, but I'd like to emphasize how remarkably consistent my notes 
and scores were in all three tastings.

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