Luccio Chianti

Price: $6
Maker: Fratelli Bellini, Rufina, Italy
Varietal: Chianti
Packaging: 750 ml bottle, natural cork
Alcohol: 12.5%
Our Rating: 7 out of 10

Remember when Chianti from Italy came in bottles with little baskets woven around them? And that in the cute packaging, the wine was very dry and quite rough? Luccio Chianti 2004 may make you nostalgic for the basket bottles… it has a pleasant enough ripe berry nose, but the sharp tannins dominate the fruity berry notes that are present. Some breathing helped a bit, but we never reached the point where we found this wine appealing.