Isola delle Falcole Le Falcole Chianti Classico Gran Selezione 2021

Two years ago, I was in Florence with one of my favorite people in the wine world, Emanuele Graetz, or Ema, as everyone calls him. If you work in wine anywhere between Tuscany and Champagne, Ema probably knows your name. He's the unofficial mayor of the Italian wine industry, a force of nature, and genuinely one of the most joyful people I've ever shared a table with. He also happens to make a small-production Chianti that he'd been very quietly keeping off my radar, not wanting it to complicate our other business together.

That changed one night at his home over dinner. His wife had wrapped six bottles in tin foil (no brown bags on hand), and Ema's challenge was simple: rate them honestly, and if his wine doesn't land in your top three, we never speak of it again. What I didn't know until the reveal, and what Ema himself couldn't be fully sure of, since his wife had done the wrapping, was what I was actually tasting. Two vintages of Fontodi Flaccianello. Two vintages of Montevertine Le Pergole Torte. And two vintages of his Isola delle Falcole Le Falcole Gran Selezione. Wines that retail between $250 and $350+ a bottle.

Le Falcole tied for first with Flaccianello. I sat back and just stared at the bottle.

We've bought every vintage since, and the 2021 is just now being released to us at a price that makes almost no sense for what's in the glass. The property sits only a couple of miles from Antinori's Tignanello vineyard, the fruit is micro-production and impeccably farmed, and Ema's winemaking is only getting sharper. DC95, JS94. This is a wine to get on your radar before the rest of the world catches up. I’m including shipping on 1 or more bottles, because this needs to be tasted!

My notes: Dense and simmering, with moist earth, dark cherry, woodland berries, and a whisper of violet and almond blossom on the nose. The palate is intense and tightly wound, with pure dark fruit wrapped around a stony, iron-laced core, grippy, layered tannins, and a long, zesty finish. This is a brute with sophistication underneath. Decant generously and give it time, or cellar it for a decade and thank yourself later.