Castello di Ama
L'Apparita
Toscana IGT
2016

The producer

Castello di Ama. One of Chianti and Tuscany’s absolute top estates, Castello di Ama was founded in 1976 and is today run by Lorenza Sebasti (daughter of one of the founder’s) who took over the management of the estate in 1993. 75 ha of vineyards are spread around the village of Ama, in Gaiole-in-Chianti which, at elevations of between 420-527 m above sea level, ensures excellent trademark freshness in of all the wines.

Marco Palanti, winemaker and technical director since 1982, is recognised for adopting the idea of single vineyard wines in Chianti and Castello di Ama is famous notably for the single vineyards Bellavista, San Lorenzo and La Casuccia.

Vigneto Bellavista is a blend of 80% Sangiovese with Malvasia Nera; while Vigneto La Casuccia and San Lorenzo are 80%-85% Sangiovese complemented Merlot and sometimes a soupcon of Malvasia Nera for San Lorenzo. All three wines are aged in 50% new French oak barrels – and are amongst the finest in the Chianti Classico Gran Selezione category. The L’Apparita is a 100% Merlot and is thus produced under the Toscana IGT category since its first vintage in 1985, and comes from two parcels at the top of the iconic Bellavista vineyard.

The wine

L’Apparita is a 100% Merlot and is thus produced under the Toscana IGT category since its first vintage in 1985, and comes from two parcels at the top of the iconic Bellavista vineyard. Ageing takes place in oak barriques, 50% of which are new, for around 14 months. A richly layered, perfumed, and nuanced red wine, with powerful fruit concentration and linear drive and length.    

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.