The Tolaini 2021 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigna Montebello Sette brings out the natural freshness of Sangiovese, and it also delivers layered oak tones, spice and iris root. From a vineyard with silt, clay and lots of rocks, the wine offers power and length over a mid-weight finish and polished tannins. The wine is fermented in oak casks and later ages in stages in both stainless steel and botte. Production is 15,000 bottles. (Wine Advocate, October 2025)

The 2021 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigna Montebello Sette is a sombre, mysterious wine. Leather, cedar, incense and pipe tobacco lead into a core of dark Sangiovese fruit. Virile and imposing, with serious palate presence, the 2021 is a Gran Selezione that needs a bit of time in bottle to unwind. I suspect it will always be rather brooding. (Vinous)

Selected from a north-facing, two-hectare plot planted between 1998 and 2001, this animated Gran Selezione is less reductive than past examples. The estate has introduced Tuscan wood casks with a more open grain said to lend perfume. Indeed, penetrating lavender essence and rosemary suffuses black currant. Robust and dense, the palate continues in that dark berry vein, bringing in accents of bay leaf and mint. Compact but sweet tannins tug at the teeth with a decisive chew, and the acidity is equally concentrated; best to wait a couple of years. (Decanter, February 2024)