95 pts Vinous (Galloni)

Drinking Window 2025 – 2040
The 2020 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Castello di Ama San Lorenzo is fabulous. It offers up a compelling mix of blackberry, graphite, crushed rocks, spice, lavender and black pepper, showing striking inner sweetness, gorgeous mid-palate pliancy and mid-blowing balance, all in a medium-bodied style that will be approachable with minimal cellaring. San Lorenzo remains an archetype for contemporary Chianti Classico. Production is down about 30% in 2020 because of stringent selection.– By Antonio Galloni on June 2023
94 pts Wine Spectator
A ripe style, boasting plum, blackberry and pomegranate flavors, shaded by iron, wild herbs and spice accents. Linear, despite the luscious fruit, with a firm underpinning of tannins lining the extended finish. Sangiovese and Merlot. Best from 2026 through 2043.
94 pts Wine Advocate
Made with a selection of the best estate Sangiovese (with a hint of Merlot and Malvasia Nera) from across various parcels, the Castello di Ama 2020 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione San Lorenzo is chiseled and dark with a through-line of dark mineral and crushed rock. That dry mineral note forms a precise frame around dark fruit and oak spice. The wine has drying tannins and a long, polished finish. 2024 2038
Our Tasting Note
Med+ ruby red, medium ruby to lighter pink edge. The nose is med+, classic, sour cherry, dusty, spices, balsamic, leather, crushed florals. Med+ body, medium+ fine tannins, perfect acidity, pronounced palate, the finish is long, fresh, youthful, but so pretty. A very good buy and what a classic, texbook chianti classico in the 21st century shouldtaste like.

• 80% Sangiovese; 13% Merlot, 7% Malvasia Nera
• Alcohol: 13.5%
• Exposure: North-East/South-West North-East/South-East
• Altitude: 1510-1720 feet/460-525 meters
• Soil: Clay and calcareous
• Fermented using only indigenous yeasts at in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks from 8691F, each variety separately, manual pumpovers
• Fermentation 22 days for Sangiovese, 25 days for Merlot, 26 for Malvasia Nera
• Wines racked, transferred to barriques for malolactic fermentation
• Wine blended first and then aged 12 months in 22% new, fine grained barriques, the balance in 2 year old barriques

Castello di Ama San Lorenzo is named after the picturesque San Lorenzo valley viewed from the estates eighteenth-century Villa Pianigiani and Villa Ricucci. This wine is produced from the finest grapes grown in the historic vineyards Bellavista, Casuccia, San Lorenzo and Montebuoni. An expression of Sangiovese blended with the smallest quantities of Merlot and Malvasia Nera, the hallmarks of this complex wine are finesse, elegance, intensity, length and freshness. Castello di Ama San Lorenzo has a remarkable ability to evolve, developing aromatic complexity and exemplary intensity over time.