Castello di Brolio 2006, Gran Selezione and the TransAtlantic Tasting Rift?

It was in the twelfth century that the Ricasoli family took over the castle in Gaiole in Chianti. It has weathered the centuries of attacks from outside (the Spanish) and inside as the Sienese battled with the Florentines (Brolio being geographically closer to the former but politically allied to the latter). The current edifice, a rather massive pinkish stone caste with crenelated battlements and various different towers, stands in lovely gardens surrounded by vines and olive groves. It was (re)built in the 1800s by the Iron Baron, Bettino Ricasoli, mayor of Florence, prime minster of the newly unified Italy after Cavour and above all, inventor of the varietal ‘recipe’ for Chianti.

The castle is a wonderful place to visit, to immerse in what is so wonderful about Italy and Tuscany, the beauty of the surroundings and the endless layers of history, political intrigue and art. At the end, of course, you can have a tasting. The one thing I will say for the GS is that at least it removes the temptation to throw cabernet and merlot into the baron’s sacred mix and end up with a supercharged version of Bordeaux a la Italy. Why? But we were not impressed by the new GS and, as so often, found that the supposedly humbler wines tasted far more of place, of tradition and history than the more monolithic monuments that are surely created in the winery for the US wine critics, high scores and good sales figures. But in the spirit that you cannot judge an adult by a baby, we picked up a bottle of the 2006 Castello di Brolio (which is now the GS wine) and thought we’d give it a proper chance to mature and show its adult beauty at a later date. Perhaps with age it would acquire its nobility and balance?

The US wine magazines certainly thought so. Tasting the wine in 2009, AG in the Wine Advocate scored it a solid 93, and JS in the Wine Spectator gave it a stellar 96 and crowned it in the top 100 wines of the year. Now you will probably have guessed my opinion on wine scores of super young babies, but prove me wrong…

15 years should be a decent time for a grand wine to show itself at its best. We opened the wine with some expectation given the laudatory plaudits from across the Atlantic, but the colour was oddly dark for a chianti. Bettino’s eyebrows would have raised. Almost black-red? Hmm. The nose – usually for me the most floral and elegant delight of a glass of sangiovese, was very strong and very meat stock, as if I stuck my head in a pot of simmering consommé. I like a touch of it too add complexity, but here it was full frontal and dominant. On the palate the texture was, again rather oddly, thick, with residue of acidity and tannin left, but fruit that was definitely fading. Where were those heights of a positive hedgerow of mixed berries promised me by the critics? Just a parting memory.

Perhaps this was an unfair bottle, but it came from the winery, was stored in the cellar and had a perfect cork and no obvious default. To us the wine was just another example of over extraction and Chianti made for lovers of powerful wines, but we are in Tuscany not Napa, or should be. I put my hands up to a definite bias, but after half the bottle my wife and I gave up and decided to use it as an inspiration to make some pepo, Tuscan beef stew. The overt meatiness of the wine might just meld nicely with the beef.

Somewhat frustrated and thirsty, I thought back to my last blog post from Tuscany and pulled out a half of Felsina’s vin santo. The colour was a beautiful amber gold, the taste like liquified caramel, gently raisiny and confit, rich but with enough bite. Delicious after its seven years sleep in little barrels in the attics of Felsina’s medieval granary, true Italian wine.

Postscript - ‘The Wine in My Glass’

After some encouragement and a fair few blog posts, I have published (Sept 2025) a book about my travels in the wine world, people, places and, of course, wines.  I am not a professional, so everything I say is objective and unbiased (so I can criticise when other journalists do not dare to do so for instance) and any profits will go to the Vendanges Solidaires association which was set up in 2016 to help winemakers who are in trouble after suffering the extreme weather conditions (frost, hail, fire, flood etc) which sadly are becoming ever more frequent: www.vendangessolidaires.com.

The book ranges from California to Sicily, via Salta, Jujuy and Patagonia in Argentina, Valtellina, Piemonte and Tuscany in Italy, Madeira and of course all over France (Burgundy, Chablis, Sancerre, Beaujolais, Bordeaux, the Rhone).

If you have found any pleasure and/or interest in this blog, I think you might enjoy it, especially as it has been brilliantly illustrated by Arabella Langlands-Perry who managed to juggle bringing up two young kids, helping run Maceo/Willi’s Wine Bar in Paris and producing artwork with an abundance of both talent and wit. Brava.

‘The Wine in My Glass – Tales of Wines, Winemakers and Places’

Published by The Medlar Press Limited, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, autumn 2025. www.medlarpress.com       

https://medlarpress.com/bookstore/?store-page=The-Wine-in-My-Glass-p768838784

Available from Medlar in UK, and/or from me in France & Willis Wine Bar in Paris.

Price UK Pounds 26 or 30 Euros. All profits to charity.