I love the fresh acidity of 2010.
I had a couple glasses of the 11 Felsina CC at a local restaurant on Friday. I’m not sure how long the bottle had been open but it was tasty. I’ll be picking up some of their 11’s based on this showing. The 10’s are scarce around here, though the Rancia is still available.
I love Felsina and over the years I have probably drank/sold more of their wines than all the others combined. But I really question them on this wine. Last week at Vinitaly I was looking for as many Gran Selezione wines as I could find. I tasted two and got sidetracked and missed the Felsina stand. Really stupid. Not sure if the wine is good, but at $125 per bottle it better be.
To be honest, I have to question the whole “Gran Selezione” concept. Chianti has a great $15-40 niche in the market - I’m not sure I see the huge demand for $100+ Chianti, but I may be totally wrong.
I question it also. But I don’t think that most of the producers are going that high. Many/most seem to be around $50-60. But a small sample so far. And I have tasted an even smaller sample, but the wines have been very good. I was just kind of surprised because Felsina, in the past, has seemed so sensible and reasonable in their pricing. Maybe this is some kind of special bottling.
I haven’t been following the gran selezione concept so I am ignorant on the subject. I had assumed it might be the best grapes from an estate. I was surprised and relieved to see that Felsina is making this from one vineyard and that it won’t impact the quality of their other bottlings.
Yes that is a concern of mine as well. By carving out wine for a new bottling they will weaken a current wine. We will see how this works out. Really not sure about this.
http://www.chianticlassico.com/en/2014/02/chianti-classico-gran-selezione-carta-d’identita/
I bought two bottles of 94 Fontoloro from K and L a couple of years ago and they were both brilliant.
The surprise from Felsina, to me, is the size of the price jump for Colonia over, say, Rancia – it’s not just somewhat more expensive, it’s way more expensive. I love Felsina but at over $100 this doesn’t tempt me in the least. Is the pricing anything like this in Europe? Is the Gran Selezione category just more lush, plush, oaky wines for the international palate?
FWIW, Decanter’s August 2014 review of Chianti’s 2010 vintage had the American-owned Il Molino di Grace CC Gran Selezione Il Margone as one of their top two picks, and it’s around $40-45/bottle around here.
The pricing does seem off on this wine from Felsina. Something that I can not say about their other wines. I know that AG didn’t like the 2009. Especially for the price. I tasted at Il Moilna di GRace stand last year at Vinitaly. I was very impressed. Maybe a few wines were a bit more modern than I would have liked but some fine wines still. Sorry I missed doing a visit when I was in the area.