2004 Il Colombaio de Cencio Chianti Classico i Massi

This goes for about $30 at retail, while I typically prefer cheap Chiantis (most of which are acidic, tart, and not sweet) every so often it's worth grabbing one of these mid-level ones...

Black raspberry with a white tea thing on the nose.

Cherry, tobacco, eucalyptus, a bit of cocoa....I'm thinking this may be a tad too old, it just seems flat.

Tart cherry and more eucalyptus on the finish.

Meh.

Score: 84

2007 Sopranos Chianti

I bought this for $10 on a whim - I enjoy tacky labels and I am a fan of cheap Chianti....I expected to not be much of a fan, but thanks to blind tasting I was kept honest.

The nose is like sniffing a cedar cigar box - big time tobacco and wood.

A firm punch of tobacco hit me immediately with this one - cedar comes out as well right away - cherry, plum, and some slightly underripe strawberry come through as well. Quite tart and acidic - a turn off for some, but I rather like the style. As the bottle opens, I do get a bit of a slightly sugary cola like quality - frequent readers know I am a sucker for cola, so this works nicely. Something I haven't gotten from a wine lately is that "garbage" quality I sometimes mention - difficult to describe and not necessarily (in fact, generally not) a bad thing. It's a weird sort of funk - a funkiness I associate with Italian wine - it is polarizing, but I quite enjoy it....kind of an earthy, smokey, barnyardy thing.

The finish is mostly - you guessed it - tobacco and cedar with a bit of red fruit, fading quickly, an ever so slight suggestion of menthol way in the back.

As a fan of cheap Chianti, you'll want to take this score with a grain of salt. I'm a bit ashamed to rate a gimmick wine so highly, but we keep it real here.

Score: 85

2004 Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva

It's kind of a shame that the, apparently, unrelated Monsanto corporation is so evil....it's like buying a wine called Mussolini. It just feels wrong.

The nose here strikes me of mostly barnyard - funky to be sure, even some rotten banana comes through.

Smooth and somewhat heavy - not terribly acidic - loads of dark chocolate, cherry, (bordering on rotten) strawberry, tobacco, leather, cedar - pretty much everything you'd expect from a quality Chianti.

Chocolatey and tobacco notes on the finish.

This strikes me as a very well crafted bottle in a true Chianti Classico style. For $20 there's absolutely nothing to dispute here - drinking fine now but I'll bet in a few years it would be even better.

Wine: 8
Value Sure enough

2006 Gabbiano Chianti Classico.

I believe this was $11 at Costco, which is tough to argue with.

Earth and chocolate on the nose.

Smooth drinking – cherry mostly with a bit of blackberry. Not much in terms of tannin but reasonably acidic background. In the 2006 regular Chianti I got some cola notes, and I'm getting them here too with a bit of root beer.

A short finish of earth with a tad of garbage.

While this is fine, I'm not convinced this is worth the extra $4 over the Chianti.

Wine: 6.5
Value: Pass

2007 Bolla Chianti

We had the option of seven dollars for a bottle or eleven for a double – eh, why not?

Chocolate and some spices on the nose.

On the lighter side of medium bodied, darker than I normally expect – chocolate, ripe cherries and blackberries. Good acidic backbone and reasonable tannins.

At eleven bones for a magnum, you can't really argue with this. To my palate, cheap Italian wine are consistently solid for the price – they're typically reasonably well balanced with solid acid and funk to balance out the fruit. This one is no exception. If you want to buy a larger bottle to drink over a few days, this is certainly a decent option.

Wine: 6
Value: Yep

2006 Fontana D'Italia Chianti

A six dollar frozen pizza calls for only the best eight dollar Italian wine I can find.

Rich dark chocolate with some oak essence on the nose.

Black fruit – black cherries – decent underlying acid, with some cedar notes, but overall a bit heavier feeling than I expected

Some oak notes linger on the finish – along with some cinnamon and clove.

Thoroughly uninteresting and not the style I enjoy. For the price, there are way too many “pizza wines” like this that are more enjoyable.

Wine: 5
QPR: 5

2006 Gabbiano Chianti

I was perusing our archives and was shocked to see we've never reviewed the regular ol' Gabbiano Chianti. You know the drill with this one, six bucks or so, available everywhere wine is sold.

Strawberry and earth on the nose.

Interesting – this is one of most Pinot Noir like Chianti's I've had. In fact, screw cheap Pinot Noir, grab this. Chocolate, earth, even a bit of cola, and cherry.

Earth, anise, and chocolate on the finish.

I've been a believer in Gabbiano for a while – in fact, it holds a special place in my heart as Gabbiano Chianti is the first bottle of wine I ever bought (my thoughts at the time “that label is bad ass!”). A decent bottle of wine that's a steal and a half at the price.

2004 Antinori Pèppoli Chianti Classico

This goes for about $15, but I grabbed it on clearance for half that.

The nose is mostly earth, funk, and strangely raw meat.

Fairly firm tannins, raspberry, cherry, earth, chocolate, cedar, and a reasonable amount of funk.

A lot of spice comes through on the finish – cinnamon, clove, nutmeg – quite interesting.

Even at fifteen bucks this is solid. A lot of complexity here and overall, an enjoyable bottle. If it wasn't sold out, I'd cheerfully grab a few more bottles.

2005 Fattoria della Vitae Chianti Colli Senesi

I grabbed this one on sale and figured since I never met a Chianti I didn't like it would be worth a shot. It was under $10, but I don't recall much more than that.

No nose at first but it opened a bit to chocolate and orange.

Wow – just wow. This is one of the strangest bottles I've ever had.

At first pour – I would've said this is a fairly typical Chianti except it had a bit less acid than I'd expect.

After about 45 minutes, I felt this wine collapsed – th e acid all but disappeared, there wasn't much fruit except for some blueberry, no oak, no tannin, though I did get some earth – a strange structureless fruity, yet earthy, mess.

Here I am, 90 minutes in, and my tune is changing yet again. The acid is still milder than I'd expect for a Chianti. Blueberry and cherry is coming through as well as some nice chocolaty and earthy notes. It's still a bit too soft for me, almost watery, but it's not bad.

Some citrus notes are on the finish but it fades.

I think I need to get another bottle of this before I make up my mind. At the very least, this bottle was interesting. For under ten bucks, it's worth a gamble.

2005 Da Vinci Chianti

This wine is actually from Vinci – good for them, I was going to make a snarky comment if it wasn't (there was a lot of anmosity about the Da Vinci code from nerdy types who complained that all DaVinci is not a last name. Nitpicky, I say)....I paid about $10 for this.

Chocolate and cherry on the nose.

Mild tannins, cherry, and oak with a fair amount of plum and a hint of root beer. The acid really comes through late on the palate but it's not as sharp as some of the other mass produced Chianti out there.

Sweet, ripe strawberries and oak linger on the finish.

Not a bad bottle at all, in fact this is quite enjoyable.

2004 Ruffino Chianti Classico Riserva Ducale

I had memories of an older vintage and slightly higher label (Riserva Oro) being a great wine, so I figured I'd try a bottle – this was on sale for about $20.

The nose is all chocolate covered cherry.

Tobacco, oak, smoke, earth – a funky wine to be sure. Some cherry notes come through, plus some spice. Firm tannins even after being open for a few hours. A reasonable amount of acid brings some balance.

Oak, tobacco, and mint linger on the finish.. Fran tells me it lingers like cough medicine.

Italian wine is weird – this is no exception. I'm not sure how I feel about this honestly. Maybe some more time on the wine rack would help it out, but as it is I can't praise this one much.

2005 Gabbiano Chianti Classico

Good ol' Gabbiano. A generally reliable producer of Chianti that I never hesitate picking up. This one ran me $10.

Earth and spice on the nose.

A nice Chianti – earthy, funky, some chocolate, a bit of cherry, some blackberry, and a nice balance of oak, all with a reasonable amount of acid. The regular Chianti from Gabbiano is light and zingy, this is a fairly bold wine, lots of funk and earthy notes.

I'm getting a big of cinnamon and spice on the finish that didn't really come through on the palate.

I consider Gabbiano a reliable brand – good, sometimes damn good, especially when you consider the pricepoint.

2001 Ruffino Riserva Ducale Oro Chianti Classico

While we've had plenty of lower end Chianti, I don't remember ever even trying a higher end one. I was poking around our local Costco and noticed this one for just under $30 so I jumped on it since it has received strong reviews.

Earth and oak on the nose, a bit of cherry, some plum, and a lot of that Italian funk.

A bit of strawberry, some nice smooth tannin, a whole lot of earth and funk, some anise, some oak, some smoke, and a hint of dried black fruit – prune or raisin, a bit of barbecue sauce, and some cherry – tart and dried – as well.

This wine has a finish and a half. It starts with strawberry, fades with some tobacco, and oak notes linger for well over a minute.

An excellent wine and one I'd recommend to fans of Chianti. We like the cheaper stuff so this splurge was a nice change of pace – a bigger, denser, and deeper change of pace that I very much enjoyed but certainly wouldn't want to just randomly crack open. If you're having a special Italian dinner, skip the Gabbiano and grab something like this.

2005 Bell’agio Chianti

Many times I’ll read about Chianti and I see comments about wicker basket bottles swill....I know I’ve seen these bottles before but I realize we’ve never actually tried one. On sale for $6 I couldn’t see a reason not to pick up a bottle.

Some sharp acid, cherry, mild oak, and not much in terms of tannins. Nothing interesting, but I can’t say I’m offended.

No finish.

Many people don’t like to “waste” fancy wine on cheap food like frozen pizza - I personally don’t have a problem with it - but if you do, this can’t be much better or worse than any of the other Chianti at this price.

2004 Tramonto’s Red Chianti

This is the namesake wine of Rick Tramonto. Rick owns the ultra high end restaurant Tru and you may have recently seen him on Iron Chef with his partner Gale Gand. He recently opened three restaurants in Wheeling and we picked this up after eating breakfast at Osteria di Tramonto (http://www.cenitare.com/). This one ran me $18. The cork says Casa Vinicola Dreolino.

I get some raspberry and earth on the nose.

Cherry, cinammon, earth, funk, black tea, and medium tannins. I’ve never tasted black tea in wine before and this one just screams it. I typically expect a somewhat sharp acidic bite from Chianti and this does not have one at all - it’s fairly smooth. We had this with some baked mostaccioli and Boca sausage and it went extremely well.

The finish brings out some nice herbal and earthy notes.

Is it worth $18? Human nature leads to bias, and just by knowing what it is, I know I’m probably giving this more of a chance than I normally would...if the label said “Gabbiano” instead of “Tramonto,” how would I feel? It’s an inherent problem with not pouring wine blind.

At the very least, this is worthwhile as a souvenir or a gift for that special foodie in your life who couldn’t be there. I feel this is almost certainly the finest straight up Chianti I’ve had and if this was on the menu by the bottle for even $30 I'd have it with dinner.

2003 Castello D'Albola Chianti Classico

This one was right about $10, which is somewhat low for a Classico, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

Earth and plum on the nose.

Cherry, earth, blackberry, plum, smokey oak, spice, and that good ol’ funk that is in most Chiantis. A touch of sweetness, and lots and lots of acid make food a requirement for this.

The finish fades quickly and starts with some cherry but fades to spice...cinnamon mainly.

Not a wine I’d say should be consumed by itself, but it would make almost any type of Italian faire taste better.