www.castellodiama.com

SIENA - ITALY

95 points

95 points

O ers a combination of power and elegance, with a racy feel. Notes of wild cherry, strawberry and rose, with leafy, woodsy flavors, permeate this driving red. The finish is long, but this needs time to shed the tannins. Well-defined from start to finish. Sangiovese, Malvasia Nera and Merlot. Best from 2017 through 2030.Bruce Sanderson

93 points

Wonderful aromas of dried orange peel, cedar and cherries. Some co ee too. Full body with silky tannins and a long finish. A beautiful single-vineyard Chianti Classico. Drink now.James Suckling

Rich, creamy, cherry nose, with red fruits to perk it up. Suave, velvety and very concentrated. Luxurious but spicy and lively on the finish, with super balance and length. Stephen Brook

CASTELLO DI AMA SAN LORENZO 2010CHIANTI CLASSICO GRAN SELEZIONE DOCG

96 points

92 points

This has a dusty character on the nose with soil, dried fruit and blueberry. Flowers too. Full body, firm tannins and a fresh finish. Tight and structured. Shows wonderful depth of fruit and beauty. Chewy. Better in 2016.James Suckling

Broad and intense, exhibiting floral, cherry, rhubarb, leather and almond notes. Well-knit and vibrant, with a compact finish. Should stretch out nicely. Best from 2016 through 2026.Bruce Sanderson

17,5/20 points

By juicy, elegant style. Perfectly staged tannins, refreshing youthful acidity, nice flow, very much touch and elegance at the end. With its complexity it should fit for a special evening.

CASTELLO DI AMA SAN LORENZO 2011CHIANTI CLASSICO GRAN SELEZIONE DOCG

Amazing aromas of crushed dark fruits with raspberry, blueberry and blackberry. Dried flowers and violets too, plus tanned leather. Full body, ultra-fine yet dense tannins and a finish that lasts for minutes. Stunning texture. One of the greatest Chianti Classicos ever made.James Suckling

Freshly cut flowers, mint, violets, licorice and red plums burst from the 2011 Chianti Classico Vigneto La Casuccia. Intensely aromatic, supple and expressive, the 2011 captivates all of the senses with its tremendous intensity and depth. The flavors are dark, supple and totally polished from start to finish. In 2011, the Casuc-cia is pure texture, resonance and class. A healthy dollop of Merlot adds depth and volume.Antonio Galloni

Rich and modern, pure and expressive, with violet, black currant, cherry and spice flavors that ride the racy profile and dense tannic structure to a long, lingering aftertaste of fruit and spice. Sangiovese and Merlot. Best from 2017 through 2030.Bruce Sanderson

98 points

94 points

95 points

VIGNETO LA CASUCCIA 2011CHIANTI CLASSICO GRAN SELEZIONE DOCG

The 2011 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigneto Bellavista is quite reticent today. This is a decidedly mid - weight, lifted Bellavista with perhaps a little less structure than is typical. Violets, mint, sweet spices and plums all lift from the glass in a wine built on pure finesse. Typi-cal Bellavista notes of lavender, plum and graphi-te appear on the finish. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the 2011 to blossom in bottle.Antonio Galloni

Rich and elegant, with black cherry, black currant, violet and boysenberry flavors allied to a sleek frame. Dense and weightless at once, with a lingering aftertaste of tobacco and tea. Presents a fine balance and aftertaste. Sangiovese and Mal-vasia Nera. Best from 2016 through 2028. 520 cases made.Bruce Sanderson

The 2011 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigneto Bellavista opens to dark concentration, bold intensity and an immediate delivery of ripe fruit flavors. Stylistically speaking, this single vineyard Grand Selezione is extracted, muscular and extremely fruit forward. The heat of the 2011 vintage comes through loud and clear. Happily, the mouthfeel is tighter and more focused with dusty minerality on the tannins and long persistency.Robert Parker

93+ points

92 points

93 points

VIGNETO BELLAVISTA 2011CHIANTI CLASSICO GRAN SELEZIONE DOCG

Vigneto Bellavista

L’APPARITA 2011

L’APPARITA 2010

A deep and beautiful red with ripe berry, plum and orange peel cha-racter. Almost exotic in style. Full body, ultra-fine tannins and a cares-sing texture. Goes on for minutes. So beautiful now but will be event better in 2018. Greatest L'Apparita ever?James Suckling

Ama's 2010 L'Apparita is super-intriguing from the very first taste. With each passing vintage, it seems like L’Apparita becomes less about Merlot and more about Ama. Dark red cherries, rose petals, sage, rosemary, tobacco and licorice are some of the many notes that are alive in the glass. Wonderfully nuan-ced and expressive, the 2010 caresses every corner of the palate with breathtaking intensity and finesse. The 2010 isn't a huge L’Apparita, rather it is a cool vintage, savory Merlot built for the cellar.Antonio Galloni

A classic merlot with blackcurrants, dark chocolate and hints of new wood. Full-bodied, firm and chewy.This is layered and very powerful but shows intensity and reserve. Needs time to soften: better in 2016.James Suckling

96+ points

98 points

95 points

IGT TOSCANA

IGT TOSCANA

haiku 2011

92 points

Dark red berries, mint, rose petals and cinnamon jump from the glass in the 2011 Haiku. Juicy and supple throughout, the 2011 delivers gorgeous immediacy. Sweet floral notes from the Cabernet Franc add intrigue on the layered, supple finish. There is a lot to like here. Next to the 2010, the 2011 is fleshier, deeper and more textured, but a bit less defined in its aromas and flavors. Antonio Galloni

92 points

Fascinating aromas of dried berries such as blueberries and blackberries. Flowers, too. Full body, round and silky tannins and a savory finish. Very drinkable now. A blend of 50% Sangiovese, 25% Merlot and25% Cabernet Franc.

James Suckling

IGT TOSCANA

Castello di Ama is not one of the aforesaid. It’s a serious working wine estate – year on year one of the best among the Chianti Classico producers, its full-bodied but elegant reds consistently eulogised by world-renowned wine writers such as Antonio Galloni and the FT’s own Jancis Robinson. It’s also become quietly celebrated for its collection of site-specific contemporary art, commissioned from artists of the calibre of Anish Kapoor, Daniel Buren and Louise Bourgeois. And as of April 2015, it also has three guest suites – part of an unhurried, small-scale embrace of luxurious hospitality that began in March 2014 with the opening of a restaurant, Il Ristoro di Ama, in one of two elegant 18th-century villas at the heart of the estate village.

JUNE 14 2015LEE MARSHALL

DESTINATIONS

Chianti’s Castello di Ama side-steps coffee-table-book clichés in favour of the real Tuscany. Lee Marshall savours its elegantly eclectic spirit as its owners open up rooms in the 18th-century villas for paying guests

From Lecchi, one of those solid, stone-built Chianti villages where a single shop functions as café, wine bar, grocer, newsagent and tabacchi, the road rises through olive groves and oak woods to a panoramic ridge. Here a massive block of galestro schist – the bedrock around these parts and one of the reasons why the Sangiovese grapes planted in this area end up as such good wines – acts as the Castello di Ama welcome sign. To the left, the Bellavista vineyard descends in neat, serried rows; given the winery’s vocation for avant-garde cultural interventions, you could be forgiven for seeing this and other meticulously combed slopes as a form of land art.

There’s no true castle at Ama – at least not any more – just a delightful stone borgo, or estate village. Not all the houses here belong to the winery’s owners, Lorenza Sebasti and Marco Pallanti, but the important ones do: grand family summer retre-ats Villa Pianigiani and Villa Ricucci. On its frescoed piano nobile, Villa Pianigiani hosts the laid-back Il Ristoro di Ama. Sicilian-born chef Giovanni Bonavita has been working for the Sebasti family for 20 years; it was a small step from cooking for the family, their art-world friends and visiting wine professionals, to cooking for paying guests. The menu is simple and local – pappa al pomodoro, potato-filled tortelli in Cinta Senese sauce, chicken with black olives in wine sauce – but it’s a revelation, from the ribollita soup (almost solid, the way it should be, with delicate zolfini beans replacing cannellini) to one of the best zabaiones I’ve tasted, made with Ama’s tangy, not-too-sweet vin santo and served with a meltingly good hazelnut tart.

The three guest suites are in the grander of Ama’s two patrician villas, Villa Ricucci; guests here also have the run of a library, a vintage billiard room and several other communal nooks. One of the most enjoyable things about Ama is that no leading contemporary designer has been called in to decorate it. My two-bedroom upstairs suite is the aptly named Bellavista, its twin bifora windows looking down onto Daniel Buren’s compelling mirror installation, Sulle vigne: punti di vista, and beyond to a gentle declivity striped with vines. Inside, the salient features are two nonna style cast-iron beds, a lived-in Persian rug, an oak wardrobe large enough for several concealed lovers, and a lovely walnut chest of drawers. Like most real Tuscan patrician interiors (rather than Tuscan-experience ones), it’s an engaging, if somewhat random, blend of heirloom furniture.

True, the spectacular downstairs dining room, with its 18th-century frescoes, along with one of two suites that open onto it, feature a few contemporary pieces by Mila-nese design firm Edra – beaten-steel Campana light shades, patchwork Leatherwor-ks chairs – but these too partake of the same defiantly eclectic spirit. You feel that most of these things are here because somebody likes them, not because they’re pitching for coffee-table-book fame.

|T MAGAZINE TRAVEL

A Place to Nap After Wine TastingBy ONDINE COHANE AUG. 20, 2015

Visitors to Italian vineyards are often treated to lavish winetastings, four-course lunches and, sometimes, a walk around 15thcentury grounds. But soon after a big meal, one is faced with a challenge: How to drive back to the hotel? Now, three famous vineyards in Tuscany and Abruzzo have solved this quandary by opening hotel rooms — newly refurbished, and often little-advertised — on the vineyard grounds.

Castello di Ama has long been one of the blue-chip names in Chianti. A familyowned vineyard since the 1970s, varietals like its San Lorenzo cru frequently place in the top 10 spots on the Wine Spectactor’s best 100 list. But just as famous as its grapes is the Pallanti family’s contemporary art collection which, sprinkled throughout the Castello’s medieval borgo, includes a Louise Bourgeois sculpture called “Topiary” (ingeniously hidden beneath a grate in the cantina floor) and an Anish Kapoor light installation, “Aima,” that illuminates the estate’s tiny chapel. Now, the vineyard’s owners, Lorenza Sebasti and Marco Pallanti, have transformed the elegant villa that anchors the borgo into a threebedroom hideaway, with each room outfitted with Frette sheets and access to a state-of-the-art kitchen. The view from one unit, the Bellavista, features lines of vineyards as far as the eye can see — and a show-stopping mirrored installation by Daniel Buren that reflects the rolling hills. For dinner, guests convene on the terrace of Il Ristoro di Ama for a meal cooked by Giovanni Bonavita, the family’s private chef.