Our blind tasting game—without the tasting! Can you identify a wine just by reading its tasting note? We post real Wine Spectator reviews. You use clues such as color, aromas, flavors and structure to figure out the grape, age and origin. Good luck!
Tasting Note: A racy style, delicate and elegant, but not fragile, offering strawberry, cherry, hibiscus, mineral and wild herb flavors. Firmly structured, with subtle fruit notes prevailing on the finish.
And the answer is...
Variety
Our mystery wine is firmly structured with racy acidity and red fruit, floral, mineral and herb notes. Let’s figure out what it is!
We can start by eliminating Grenache: Though they can have berry and herb notes, Grenaches tend to be medium-bodied wines with low to medium levels of acidity and softer tannins, as well as spice, pepper, tar and leather accents.
While a Pinot Noir could show our wine’s racy acidity and red fruit and hibiscus notes, we would not generally expect firm structure from a Pinot Noir. Let’s move on.
Zinfandels can definitely show high levels of firm tannins and red fruit notes. Unfortunately, Zinfandels also tend to have lower levels of acidity. This grape has to go too.
Tempranillos can have high levels of firm tannins and racy acidity along with red fruit, herb and mineral notes. But our wine’s hibiscus note would be unusual for Tempranillo, and we are missing that grape’s hallmark citrus accents. Maybe another grape works better?
Sangiovese tends to make red wines with lively acidity and high levels of firm tannins, which support red fruit, floral, mineral and herb notes. This is closest to the mark.
This wine is a Sangiovese.
Country or Region of Origin
Sangiovese doesn’t grow widely around the world, and it would be difficult to find it in Austria or Spain. There are some Sangiovese plantings in South Africa, but the grape hasn’t achieved much prominence there compared to other red varieties. Sangiovese has found a foothold in California, where it is used for riper, richer versions with rounder tannins and dark fruit and spice flavors. These contrast with examples from Italy, Sangiovese’s origin; these versions often feature firm and gripping tannins, higher levels of racy acidity and red fruit, spice, mineral, herb and floral notes. Italian Sangiovese sounds like what we’re looking for.
This Sangiovese is from Italy.
Appellation
Knowing that our Sangiovese is from Italy, we can eliminate Austria’s Kamptal, Spain’s Ribera del Duero, California’s Santa Barbara and South Africa’s Walker Bay. This leaves us with two Italian appellations: Barbaresco and Chianti Classico. Barbarescos are firm red wines with high levels of acidity and tannins as well as red fruit flavors. While this sounds like our wine, Barbarescos are made exclusively with the Nebbiolo grape, so this can’t be right for our wine. Meanwhile, Sangiovese is the primary grape in Chianti Classico, an appellation in Tuscany. Our choice is clear.
This Sangiovese is from Chianti Classico.
Age
Our Sangiovese’s fruit notes are still fresh, and it isn’t showing any signs of aging, such as dried fruit or leather notes. Bearing in mind that Chianti Classicos must be aged for at least 12 months, let’s look at this appellation’s most recent vintages to figure out our wine’s age.
Spring frosts reduced yields in 2020, and a warm summer led to early harvesting and ripe wines with dark and blue fruit notes and iron accents. Summer was rainy in Chianti Classico in 2019, and that year’s wines are balanced with racy acidity and red fruit, mineral, herb and floral notes. Ripening was slow in 2018, which led to a later harvest; that year’s reds are muscular with earth and graphite accents. Out of these options, 2019’s Chianti Classicos sound the most like our wine.
This Chianti Classico is from the 2019 vintage, making it five years old.
Wine
This is the Lanciola Chianti Classico Le Masse di Greve 2019, which scored 92 points in the Jan. 31 – Feb. 29, 2024, issue of Wine Spectator. It retails for $27, and 3,300 cases were made. For more on Tuscan wines, read senior editor Bruce Sanderson’s tasting report, "The Riches of Tuscany," in the Oct. 31, 2023, issue.—Collin Dreizen, assistant managing editor
