Tenuta Perano is the Frescobaldi family’s estate within the Chianti Classico DOCG, situated in the heart of the zone between Gaiole and Radda in Chianti on the hillsides of the Arbia River valley. The estate’s 130 hectares include 30 hectares of vine at elevations between 400 and 600 metres, with the combination of altitude, well-drained galestro and alberese soils and a continental mountain microclimate producing Sangiovese of pronounced mineral character, high natural acidity and excellent age-worthiness. Rialzi is the estate’s Chianti Classico Gran Selezione, a designation introduced to the DOCG in 2014 to recognise the highest tier of Chianti Classico production from single-vineyard or best-barrel selections.

The Gran Selezione category requires a minimum of 30 months of ageing including at least three months in bottle, and the wines are typically the most age-worthy and structured expressions a producer makes within the appellation. Rialzi is produced from the most carefully selected Sangiovese parcels on Tenuta Perano, with fruit from old vines farmed at high altitude providing the concentration and aromatic complexity needed for the extended ageing the designation demands. The 2018 Chianti Classico vintage was warm and generously ripe across the zone, producing wines of excellent concentration and approachable structure that have been drinking well in their first decade.

Tenuta Perano’s Rialzi has been reviewed by multiple approved publications across successive vintages, with Wine Enthusiast noting for the 2017 vintage a wine of ‘full-bodied, rounded’ character with baked plum and vanilla notes. The 2018 vintage, with its superior fruit quality and more harmonious structure, is expected to represent a step forward from the 2017 at the same estate. Tenuta Perano is one of the lesser-known but most carefully managed of the Frescobaldi group’s Tuscan estates, and the Rialzi Gran Selezione represents its most important and age-worthy red wine expression.