2021 Vintage: Two thousand twenty-one is the single greatest young vintage I have ever tasted in Chianti Classico. Period. Full stop. The 2021s are majestic wines endowed with striking aromatics, layered fruit and all the energy that is such a signature of the appellation. Quality is consistently high across the region, while many wines hit breathtaking peaks of excellence. ANTONIO GALLONI

for decades have represented  points of reference for the area and the entire appellation. ALESSANDRO MASNAGHETTI, Chianti Classico The Atlas of the Vineyards

Sapidity, elegance, territorial expressiveness and precision: this, in extreme synthesis, is the style of the wines of Isole e Olena. SLOW WINE 2021

Paolo doesn’t look for power but for elegance and finesse, which are the central threads running through all his wines. When praised for his achievements, he modestly replies with a twinkle in his eyes ‘I’m just trying to do what I believe in. DECANTER MAGAZINE

When Paolo de Marchi speaks his humility shines through, even now that his has become one of the most respected voices on Tuscan grapes and wines. NICHOLAS BELFRAGE, The Finest Wines of Tuscany.

What a sensationally engaging bottle of wine. 

We expect consistent greatness from Paolo di Marchi, and for the most part he delivers. This shows all the beauty, precision and cut that Isole’s Chianti is renowned for, accompanied with the snap, crackle and pop that the best 2021s demonstrate. Brightly fruited, gently spiced, gloriously perfumed and wonderfully alluring. So much to love here with that fresh, clean, snappy fruit that pops with exuberance and crackles with the liveliness of the season. 

So damn charming that one may overlook the heft of the tannins, which are gritty, they pluck insistently at your palate while the fruit washes your mouth with all its depth of personality and the sweet, nearly juicy, berry/cherry cola characters soak up the phenolics just enough that they are most definitely present, but they are so well shaped that they mostly illicit the feeling of hunger as your mind rushes towards what meal would best suit that kind of gentle structure. 

Just so damn charming. We have all been talking about the arrival of the 21s for a little while now, so when we see them and they live up to the enormous hype around the year, well, it’s very satisfying. Here you have the graceful, poised, uplifting style of Isole in a season, that on paper, was perfect for Paolo to take advantage of. It’s a very convincing rendition of this stalwart. I love it, Michael loved it, everyone will love it. I have no doubt in my mind that this will bring a lot of pleasure to anyone who grabs some. 

What’s more, the 21s are superbly balanced wines that will gift consumers with an unmistakably Chianti, textbook Sangiovese experience in their youth. All that crisp, clear and cool fruit is going to win a lot of hearts early on in the piece, especially around the dinner table. However, that balance and zest will ensure these develop well over the medium term. I would suggest that these will grow in to more compelling wines than any recent vintage, we would need to go back to, possibly 2016, and then it’s probably 2010, to see this kind of quality and this transparency and definitive Sangioveseness. 

The sad news? This is, I believe, Paolo’s last vintage at Isole e Olena. He sold the business and has retired to his family property in the Alta Langhe. I guess you couldn’t ask for a better season to finish up on. Still, for anyone who has been drinking good Italian wine for any period of time, this is the end of one of the greatest careers in Tuscany and a storied run of some of the greatest wines ever made in Italy. I think it is fair to say that the great man will be missed, his wines more so.