Wine of the week: an epic Selvapiana with bravado and panache

A life-long Selvapiana fan, Matthew Jukes samples a tip off from a fellow wine scribe – and what a wine it turned out to be.

Matthew Jukes
By Matthew Jukes
published

2016 Chianti Rufina, Vigneto Erchi, Fattoria Selvapiana, Tuscany, Italy about £55, stswithinswineshippers.com,oldbridgewine.co.uk, valvonacrolla.co.uk, thefinewinecompany.co.uk.

Every so often I get a tip off froma fellow wine scribe about awine I ought to have a go at.Of course, this only works when one's pal knows the precise shape of my own palate and the Olympian standards that I adhere to in my carefully chosen recommendations. There areonly a handful of people, globally, who fit the bill as critic for this critic and one of these talented tasters is Jane Parkinson the wine expert on the BBC'sSaturday Kitchen. Jane found this debut vintage of Vigneto Erchi before me and made a fuss about it on Instagram. As a life-long Selvapiana fan(this is the fourth mention for this elite estate in MoneyWeek sincemy debut in 2006),I called in a sample without delay.

What a wine! Made by the greatest producer in Chianti's Rufina zone, this is a richer wine than many of the breezy, slender reds made by this property and this is because it comes from a south-facing vineyard that soaks up the sun's rays while maintaining vital freshness on its finish, thanks to the elevated Rufina topography. With a 10% French oak addition to the traditional large botti format recipe, this is a wine with a large slice of panache on top of its indisputable leagues of flair.

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If you are familiar with Selvapiana's epic Chianti, Bucerchiale, then Erchi takes this model and brings even more intensity and bravado to the mix. Grazie, Jane.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com)

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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