2007 Castello di Bossi - chianti classico

This is a review I've been meaning to publish for a while now. A few months ago, I had the chance to try a good bottle of Chianti. It's a 2007 Castello di Bossi chianti classico, from Italy.

The Castello di Bossi winery is located in a small village in Tuscany called Castelnuovo Berardenga, near Pianella. It's located along an old Roman road and Roman ruins have been found in the vicinity of the winery. Cool. When I was in Italy, almost ten years ago (wow, time flies,) I remember trying the Chianti that came in the little genie-shaped bottles with the wicker baskets around them. Dad and I grabbed some cheese from a local store and a little taster bottle of the Chianti. I guess I didn't know what to expect at 15 years old, but the Chianti wasn't pleasant. Maybe it was cheap wine, maybe I wasn't used to drinking wine, I don't know. 

Fast forward now nine years. I wanted to try a Chianti and so I crack open this bottle. Tuscany enjoyed a bountiful harvest in 2006 and in 2007, and a wine of this vintage is considered a great example of a Chianti, so I figured this would be a good place to start.

Immediately, this wine struck me as thin and watery. Unlike a pinot noir or my all-time favorite, a bordeaux, this Chianti did not have the depth that I was hoping for in a wine. Thin alcohol flavors and dark, overripe berry flavors dominated this wine. The aftertaste was slightly caustic with notes of muted fruit.

The wine has a sharp nose, and as you can see, a rust-red color. 

This wine isn't very strong, so you could pair it with foods that have strong flavors - pizza, spicy tomato sauce, Bolognese sauce with lots of peppers. Something to balance out the alcohol flavors in the wine but to also provide a stronger flavor to the pairing. The fact that this Chianti is a little faint can be good for the chef -  it gives the chef a lot of leeway in pairing up foods.

But one disclaimer - unlike some other things that I've reviewed, which I don't think are any good,  this wine can be good - I'm just not a personal fan. I like my wines full, bright, and complicated. And while this may be a good example of a Chianti, it doesn't jibe with how I like my wines (and as a result, I wasn't terribly satisfied.) I think perhaps having a singular bottle of Chianti in my cellar might be a good idea, for when it's needed, but I'd need to investigate perhaps other types of Chianti before doing that.