Why it matters
The producer
Barone Ricasoli makes Chianti Classico from Sangiovese grown on one of the largest and most historically rooted private estates in Tuscany. The property is Castello di Brolio, a fortified hilltop in Gaiole in Chianti, and the family's written link to it goes back to 1141. Most of what surrounds the vineyards is still forest: 70% of the 1,200-hectare property is woods and Mediterranean scrub, which leaves almost 240 hectares of vineyard parcels sitting in a landscape that has changed very little in outline since the medieval period.
Francesco Ricasoli, the 32nd Baron, runs the estate. He began managing production in 1990 and negotiated the repurchase of the Barone Ricasoli brand in 1993, returning it to family hands after a period of outside corporate ownership. His signature contribution since then has been a systematic plot-by-plot research programme: each parcel harvested separately, each vinification tracked, 19 soil types mapped and understood.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Gaiole in Chianti sits in the southeastern part of the Chianti Classico zone, in the province of Siena. Chianti Classico is the DOCG appellation between Florence and Siena, and it is where Sangiovese produces the wines most closely associated with the name Chianti on a label. Gaiole is higher and cooler than the northwestern corners of the zone, and the Brolio estate occupies the southern flank of this subzone, with vineyards on hillsides at between 220 and 500 metres, mostly facing south or southwest.
That elevation range matters for Sangiovese. At the lower end, the grape ripens fully and gives wine with open, accessible cherry fruit and firm but tractable tannin. At the higher parcels, harvest comes later and the fruit is tighter, with more acid backbone and ageing potential. The altitude variation is one reason the estate runs separate parcel vinification: the same grape from the same property behaves differently depending on where it grew.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The estate avoids chemical weedkillers and pesticides across its vineyard area, using fertilization and parasite-control methods it describes as stricter than standard organic principles. Each vineyard plot is harvested separately when it reaches its own ripeness, so the cellar receives parcels across an extended harvest window rather than one large intake.
In the cellar, the vats are filled by gravity rather than by pump, which limits mechanical force on the grape skins and extracts more gently. Fermentation takes place in small steel vats, one per plot, so the character of each parcel is tracked through vinification without being averaged into larger batches. After fermentation, maturation moves into barrels of various sizes and oak barriques, with the ageing duration and vessel type varied by wine tier. Some cuvees then go into extended bottle ageing under temperature control before release.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range is structured across three Chianti Classico tiers: Annata, Riserva, and Gran Selezione. Sangiovese drives all of them.
Brolio Chianti Classico is the estate entry wine. In the 2023 vintage it is 95% Sangiovese and 5% Colorino, aged 12 months in medium barrels. It gives violet and cherry aromas, tannin that is firm without being austere, and enough freshness to drink within a few years of the harvest. It is built for breadth rather than depth.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Brolio Chianti Classico is the right first bottle from this estate. It is made from Sangiovese and a small portion of Colorino, both grown on the Brolio property, aged 12 months in medium-sized barrels and released with the fruit still primary. The cherry and violet aromas are immediate, the tannin is present but already resolved enough to drink without food pairings doing heavy work, and the acid line gives it grip without sharpness. It is Chianti Classico in its most straightforward form, without the extended maceration and long maturation that make the Gran Selezione wines less accessible in their first few years.