Castello di Ama Castello di Ama San Lorenzo 2021 750ml

Deep, dark and densely wrought, featuring black cherry, blackberry, violet, iron and tobacco aromas and flavors. The sinewy tannins are enhanced by the vivid acidity, and everything comes together on the crystalline aftertaste, which echoes the fruit and floral elements. Power meets finesse. Sangiovese and Merlot. Best from 2028 through 2050. 7,715 cases made, 1,000 cases imported.

The 2020 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Castello di Ama San Lorenzo is fabulous. It offers up a compelling mix of blackberry, graphite, crushed rocks, spice, lavender and black pepper, showing striking inner sweetness, gorgeous mid-palate pliancy and mind-blowing balance, all in a medium-bodied style that will be approachable with minimal cellaring. San Lorenzo remains an archetype for contemporary Chianti Classico. Production is down about 30% in 2020 because of stringent selection. (Antonio Galloni)

This wine represents a selection of the best Sangiovese sourced from various plots with a tiny addition of Merlot and Malvasia Nera. The Castello di Ama 2021 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione San Lorenzo takes a few extra moments to open in the glass, but unlike the La Casuccia that holds back, this wine comes into full view quickly enough. The wine's flavor profile is a little meatier and fuller, and this could be linked to the warm vintage conditions. San Lorenzo is a generous wine, and it is a bottle you can enjoy in the medium or long term.

The 2021 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Castello di Ama San Lorenzo is packed with dark red fruit, licorice, spice, leather and graphite. This is a decidedly potent, backward Gran Selezione. Clean mineral notes extend the finish, presaging a brilliant future. The sculpted style is hugely appealing. Here, too, readers will have to be patient, as the 2021 is very young.

A ripe style, boasting plum, blackberry and pomegranate flavors, shaded by iron, wild herbs and spice accents. Linear, despite the luscious fruit, with a firm underpinning of tannins lining the extended finish. Sangiovese and Merlot. Best from 2026 through 2043. 500 cases imported.

Made with a selection of the best estate Sangiovese (with a hint of Merlot and Malvasia Nera) from across various parcels, the Castello di Ama 2020 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione San Lorenzo is chiseled and dark with a through-line of dark mineral and crushed rock. That dry mineral note forms a precise frame around dark fruit and oak spice. The wine has drying tannins and a long, polished finish.