1982 Riserva San Polo Chianti Clbuttico

Very nice winery I believe in Gaiole or Radda. Stacole was their importer, distributed by Atlantic Wine & Spirits in Maryland and DC. Even though Atlantic had at least 5 Chianti's exported by DeGrazia, as wine manager we added the wine to portfolio because it was available year round and it was well balanced, and priced nice(Atlantic had the lowest mark up of all the wholesalers I dealt with in my wine career. The owner didn't like inventory so were aggressive in getting orders. My goal was to match the money to be collected upon delivery to money Atlantic would gave to pay for the wines and shipping, so when the wine hit the warehouse what was left was profit. This worked as planned at least 40% of the time and was below the owners inventory threshold and being bulled headed about this I was told to move on. We had a limited number of San Polo's Cetenaia their super Tuscan which mainly sold to retailers who supported our program.

I'm sorry even in 82 the wines were not tannic fruit plants, but ready to drink. Its possible because of good storage, the wine with some pecorino or by itself would have a great nose and light fruit, a beauty that becomes a dowager.

The winery was owned and managed by Germans. About 5 years ago, the owners decide to close the winery. The general manager, Herr Volkmer was going to keep producing and selling the wine but with another name and label. Last I heard there were problems with the estate's grapes and the GM now owner had other projects. I think every wholesaler I dealt with after Atlantic had access to San Polo. Stacole placed the wine in New York- New Jersey, Georgia, Florida and New England, so decent supplies wee warehoused in the US. As far as I know the wines did well in restaurants in these states because it was food-friendly.

Please forgive this geezer rambling on..................