Antico Colle Chianti Colli Senesi 2017 DOCG

My first official wine review! It’s interesting writing this from the standpoint of “my first review” because, believe it or not, I actually have a dozen or so reviews in the pipeline just waiting to see the light of day. As luck would have it, I have been writing reviews for the last several months evidently for NO ONE BUT MYSELF, and the time has come to get them out there into the world. Sometimes being an introvert with a rich imagination and inner life can be very rewarding and sometimes, it means that all those good ideas get stuck at the starting line, staring off into space as the rest of the field sprints toward the finish. Not anymore! 

This wine gets the honor of being the first because I casually mentioned to a friend of mine at choir rehearsal last week that I was starting a wine blog (in the course of a conversation about a Purcell drinking catch that I love that we won’t be singing because it is, apparently, too… 17^th century, but I’ll leave that one alone as the entire situation is starting to be handled at the end of tongs and I can’t take it anymore). She asked me to let her know when said blog was up and running and by the way, she had this AMAZING chianti the other night from one of our wonderful local wine shops here in Northern Colorado (The Cellar) and had I heard of this one and then showed me a photo of the label. Lo and behold, it was a Strozzi chianti and I LOVE Strozzi chiantis. I wasn’t able to make it over to the shop for two days after our conversation due to a bad combination of things I have to do in my daily life that leave me with little time for anything else besides sleep and coffee only to discover to my total despair that the last bottle of the Strozzi had been sold the day before (AUUUUUGHHH!!!) and rightfully so, because it’s a splendid wine and The Cellar has a devoted fan base, as well they should. End result: the kind and extremely knowledgeable owner suggested the 2017 Antico Colle Chianti Colli Senesi. This is a sangiovese from the tiny Colli Senesi region in Tuscany and a nice, sharp, garnet-red one at that. It has a bright nose, sunny and slightly acidic. 

The wine is refreshing and drinkable, both because the fruit doesn’t overpower you and because it’s a slightly lower alcohol on the wine scale at 13.5%. On the palate, there is a fair amount of blood orange that also manages not to be too citrusy, coupled with strawberries, light spice, and nice amount of plum. There isn’t a lot of deep, dark fruit, but in this particular case, that’s fine with me. I’m one of those people who equates fruitiness in a wine with sweetness in a wine (two entirely different things, but that’s how our tastebuds work), which means that this wine is not even remotely sweet or all that fruity. The tannins aren’t quite as solid as other chiantis out there, but they have a definite presence, with a zippy tang under the tongue at the finish. I found this chianti to be drinkable and good with some salami and cheese as a saturday afternoon snack following a somewhat trying week. My only complaint is that, like other chiantis from this part of Tuscany, the Antico Colle tends acidic and lacks a certain richness present in other chiantis from other parts of Tuscany. Generally speaking, chianti is a big, really dry red with grippy tannins, but isn’t always super-acidic and as a result, I might still be chasing that Strozzi in the weeks to come. The Antico Colle is also a very convivial wine in that I think it’s meant to be shared with friends and not enjoyed as the event in and of itself. Honestly, it’s probably the perfect wine for me to have right now given that I was looking for a different chianti altogether just like I was hoping to sing a more risqué catch just like I was hoping to make it to job #2 the other day without a catastrophe (nope: coffee geyser steps from the door) just like I was hoping that my kids would make it through the school year without a lockdown at school (accidental, but still, very traumatizing). I actually bought this wine at the end of the lockdown day after finding out that my kids were totally and completely safe and also finding out what had (unintentionally) happened to trigger the lockdown. The worst thing I could do after a week like that was hunker down and drink without interaction, so I didn’t. I had a glass of this bright chianti while several things happened: Our son and I talked about his trip to opening night at the local dirt racetrack with dad. My husband and I talked about my plans for the blog and how it would be a good combination of several things I love: photography, writing, and wine. One of our cats (the super-cute cat, we also have a super-old cat and a super-fat cat) helpfully photobombed several of the photos I took of the Colli Senesi.

And finally, our teenage daughter read through some of my proposed blog posts and offered commentary on said posts (in short: she loves that her old mum is an “influencer in the making,” ha), and after taking a good sniff of this chianti in the glass, proclaimed that it smelled sunny and bright and like the countryside but not like a barn (all true). She and I are now off to watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, of all things, because it was filmed in part in Rothenburg, Germany, one of the places she will be visiting on an upcoming choir tour of Europe. So, given the week I have had, maybe a nice, drinkable, sunny chianti that can be consumed easily without thinking too much about what’s going on is exactly what I need. It’s only two years old, and affordable at $15.99, but drink now. Don’t wait, don’t over-contemplate, just enjoy.

Photos of my photobombing cat just so you can see how cute she is. And how much of a busybody as well. 😉