Mazzei Il Caggio - IPSUS Chianti Classico Gran Selezione 2021

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

This is a special limited release made in a dedicated winery with fruit from a prime vineyard site by the Mazzei family in Castellina in Chianti. The Caggio 2021 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Ipsus is infused with elegant dark fruit, blackcurrant, blackberry and blue flower. However, there is a spicy oak-driven note that is a little too prominent at this young stage. The wine is matured in a combination of clay amphorae followed by tonneaux and botte grande, and you feel the effects on the mouthfeel that is both polished and fine. It offers a bright style overall with balanced acidity and many fine-tuned flavors that are straight from the Sangiovese playlist. However, I'm going to suggest a few more years of cellar aging to tone down the oak notes.

In addition to the Sangiovese-based wine, Ipsus, Caggio has recently announced the release of limited-production olive oil from its property. I mention this because years ago, Robert Parker playfully suggested that I rate Tuscan olive oils on the 100-point scale as a sidebar to the work we do with wine. It never happened, but I often think back to his words because I am especially passionate about olive oil. Funny story: On the very same day that European aviation authorities announced that travelers could return to traveling with liquids in their carry-on, I decided to bring that sample bottle of olive oil with me on a flight to the United States because I couldn't wait to try it. It was unceremoniously confiscated and thrown into the bin by an unsympathetic security officer at the Rome airport, despite my pleas. I guess I was too optimistic that the new rules would immediately go into effect as advertised.

Falstaff

Inviting, bright ruby red colour with a slight garnet shimmer. Opens with subtle notes of flint and wet stones, then lots of cherry and rich blackberry, followed by blood orange. Literally explodes on the palate, grippy tannins in fine layers, builds for a long time, great precision, salty and juicy in the finish, a great Sangiovese, a great Chianti Classico! [Falstaff, 14/10/2025]

Jane Anson - Inside Bordeaux

Decanter Magazine

Giovanni Mazzei describes the 2021 vintage in Chianti Classico as ‘a combination of vintages: 2019 without the opulence, and the freshness of 2018 but with more grip.’ Each year of this relatively young project, the amount of oak is reduced in favour of ceramic vessels for what Mazzei describes as a ‘wine with no filter’. Spicy dark cherry and leafy herbal aromas introduce a streamlined palate, not massively intense but instead showing suppleness and balance. There's a lovely line of stoniness and a ripe, succulent core of sapid dark cherry and blackberry. Spicy and grippy, flecks of balsamic herbs, dark chocolate, iron oxide, and woodland complexity lurk. There's a squeeze of blood orange on the long, gentle finish, giving the impression that time is all that's needed for this to stretch its legs and unfurl.

James Suckling

This is a sleek, restrained wine with aromas of slate, minerals, earth, dried cherries, potpourri, cinnamon, orange zest, red currants and violets. Graceful on the palate, with a medium to full body, licorice root flavors and fine, velvety tannins. It shows the typical chalky texture of pure sangiovese yet is well covered by fruit. Long and crisp if not zesty, with intoxicating savoriness, it will age beautifully if you can wait. It will be released in October. Try it then.