Marchesi Antinori Badia a Passignano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione 2020 750ml

Badia a Passignano

One of the Antinori family of estates, Badia a Passignano sits on just over 550 acres in the heart of Chianti Classico, in Sambuca Val di Pesa, a few miles south of Antinori’s Tignanello estate. As you’d expect from the Antinori family, this Chianti estate is a superb site for growing Sangiovese, Toscana’s most emblematic grape, and making Chianti Classico Gran Selezione, the crème de la crème of Chianti’s wines. Like a fairytale fortress in the heart of Chianti Classico, Badia a Passignano’s stone walls rise out of a thicket of cypress trees, and this former abbey, originally built in 395, has played home to the Vallombrosian order, an arm of the Benedictine monks, for centuries — in fact, the Vallombrosian monks, who specialize in viniculture and forestry, continue to live on the premises. In 1987, the Antinori family bought the land surrounding the abbey, and the Antinori family uses the abbey’s ancient cellars to age its Chianti Classico Gran Selezione.