Fattoria Poggerino Chianti Classico 2020

Floriana Ginori Conti inherited the winery from her father in the 1970s, and began in 1980 together with her husband Fabrizio Lanza, to produce a Chianti Classico with the “Poggerino” label. The estate has always been ‘organic’. It’s no badge of honor, it’s just how they’ve always done it.

Since 1999, when she handed the reins to her two children, Piero and Benedetta Lanza, the rise has been meteoric. Piero believes that great wines are grown not made and his dedication to his 12 hectares of vineyards borders on the fanatical.

Admittedly, I did lose focus when he went into painstaking detail on green vs brown organic manure-based fertilizer and his unique tests on the proper cycling through of both, for example.

But no one can argue with the results. Within 10 short years, their base Chianti had found a spot at #18 on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of the Year.

This year, Wine Spectator hasn’t gotten to it yet, but one of the preeminent Italian wine experts, Antonio Galloni sure did. He came in at 92+ points, the highest score for any under $30 Chianti Classico (of which there are many) and emphatically ended his review: “The precision and pedigree here are just unreal.” I’m clearly not the only fan.