Riecine, Gioia, IGT 2016 - 75cl
La Gioia is Riecine's flagship — the barrel selection of their finest Sangiovese, and proof that a great Chianti estate can make a wine to rival Brunello without ever leaving the grape behind. It carries the Toscana IGT label rather than a DOCG, not because it aims lower but because Riecine wanted the freedom to bottle only the best fruit, 100% Sangiovese, on its own terms.
The 2016 vintage is a gift here — widely rated one of the finest recent years in Tuscany, all balance and perfume and ripe, well-knit tannin. The wine spends two years in tonneaux, a mix of new and used, then rests in bottle before release. Wine Advocate scored it around 94 points.
Expect a deeper, more brooding register than the estate Chianti: blackberry and blackcurrant, dried cherry, tobacco and turned earth. The palate is medium-to-full, firm and velvety at once, with crisp acidity keeping it lifted and a long finish of cocoa and tobacco that tightens as it goes. This is structured, serious Sangiovese that is only now hitting its stride.
Open it for a meal you've thought about, or cellar it — it has a decade and more in front of it.
How to Serve
Serve at 17-18°C. Decant one to two hours before pouring; it is still young and tightly wound. A large Bordeaux or Burgundy glass suits its depth. Drinking well now through the mid-2030s.
Where to Drink It
The River Cafe, for Italian cooking that meets it as an equal. Wiltons, for the ceremony a flagship deserves. Scott's, if the night calls for one great bottle.
Food Pairings
Bistecca alla Fiorentina, thick and rare, is the match this wine was built for. Or wild boar ragu over pappardelle for something earthier.
