2005 Chianti Classico Riserva Le Baròncole

I remember visiting Luca Martini di Cigala shortly after the 2005 harvest. "It was shaping up to be a great year and then it rained at the end of the season," he told me with his customary candor. The truth is in the glass, and the reality is that the 2005s have aged very well since then. Unfortunately I was not able to taste the Chianti Classico.

I can't think of too many growers who would show the humility to say “I could have done better” when talking about one of his highly acclaimed wines from a few years ago. It is precisely that quiet drive to continue to improve which makes Luca Martini di Cigala and San Giusto a Rentennano one of Italy's top producers. Martini is assisted by consulting oenologist Attilio Pagli, who unlike some of his colleagues, seems happy to play a supporting role that accentuates the virtues of the estate's wines rather than imposing the cookie cutter approach which has become so common among consultants. That is the good news. The bad news, or half-bad news, I should say, is that San Giusto has decided to delay the release of the 2005 Percarlo and 2000 Vin San Giusto for an additional year as they believe the wines will benefit from an additional year in bottle. It's hard to argue against that logic. In the meantime, US buyers might hope the dollar rallies. I also tasted all of the estate's 2006s and they are stunning wines at this point. Curiously Martini says 2006 is a vintage from which little was expected until a glorious final month of weather produced superb wines. Paradoxically, 2005 looked very promising, but persistent rain during the last phase of ripening ruined what had been up until that point a great year.