Italian wine lovers out West, rejoice. The Festa del Chianti Classico is returning to Denver on October 17–18, 2025. Created by the Frasca Hospitality Group in close coordination with the Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico, this two-day festival will center on educational seminars and a grand walk-around tasting to meet producers at the Thompson Hotel, as well as two spectacular dinners each night at Tavernetta. The seminars this year, led by Bobby Stuckey MS, Frasca Hospitality Groups’ Wine and Beverage Director Carlin Karr, and Caterina Mori of the Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico will be on the following topics:
- October 17, 11am – Chianti Classico Goes Green: Today’s Wins and Tomorrow’s Challenges
- October 18, 11am – Fresh Energy in Chianti Classico: Heirs, Pioneers, and the Future of the Region
- October 18, 1:30pm – Bridging Cities and Vines: How Siena and Florence Shape Chianti Classico
Producers in attendance will include Castello di Monsanto and Conti Capponi Villa Calcinaia, both Essential Winemakers of Italy on this site, as well as Carpineto, Castagnoli, Isola delle Falcole, Antinori, Nittardi, Quercia al Poggio, Querciabella, Rocca di Montegrossi, Tolaini and Tregole. Fifteen other wineries will be poured, including another perennial favorite on Opening a Bottle, Istine.
I will be attending, and I encourage all of my readers within driving distance of Denver (or impromptu make-a-weekend-of-it flight distance), to consider coming. I’ll happily guide you around and make introductions. Contact me if you will be attending. If you are coming from out of town, you can use the promo code TAVERN at the Limelight Hotel Denver next door to Tavernetta for 5% off your stay.
Below is an abridged report on the first edition, held in 2022.
The Festa del Chianti Classico Was Really Something
Originally published, October 31, 2022
…This past week, I’ve been dwelling on the positive as an amazing event called the Festa del Chianti Classico helped reinforce what a great, international market for Italian wine Denver has become. And we have the team at Tavernetta — especially Advanced Sommelier Carlin Karr and the restaurant’s co-owner Bobby Stuckey MS — to thank for a good chunk of this development.
The inaugural Festa del Chianti Classico marked a celebration of a widely misunderstood yet world-famous yet somehow ascendant-all-over-again appellation in the heart of Tuscany. Even writing that introductory sentence has me compelled to include several qualifiers, for there is no way around it: Chianti Classico is a complex place. It is sometimes a blended wine and it is sometimes a varietal Sangiovese. It can sometimes be oaky and it can sometimes have zero oak influence. It can pair with anything you throw at it, or it can be very specific in what it wants to partner with. The spectrum is enormous.
Yet the programming over two days did a fantastic job of making it crystal clear how dynamic and compelling this moment in the region’s history is.
A Unique Side-by-Side Comparison
It began Friday with a seminar focused on the new UGAs of Chianti Classico: an effort to codify 11 village zones based on their terroir, but also with an acknowledgement of the winemaking culture within each zone.
It is an effort that I extensively covered this summer after traveling to 12 different estates over three days. There is one intangible thing you’ll never find on the label about this place: When you dig into Chianti Classico, you find an area that — contrary to its historical standing — is actually quite progressive and open to new ideas.
Seeing Caterina Mori of the Consorzio in Denver was wonderful, as she was the featured guest speaker for the seminar. Along with Stuckey and Karr, she walked us through the changes happening in the DOCG, as well as a tasting of six Gran Selezione wines from six of the new UGAs. It was made clear that this was a highly unique opportunity for us: while Brunello and especially Barolo and Barbaresco have hogged the major Italian wine event spotlight in America for some time, centering a whole festival on Chianti Classico and its relatively new Gran Selezione category was rather novel.
The Star of the Show
However, the truly revelatory experience for me came Saturday night at Stuckey’s Union Station restaurant, Tavernetta, during the four-course Chianti Classico dinner, which I attended with my wife, Hailey.
For each of the four courses, four different Chianti Classico were served. Winemakers who flew in for the event from Florence (or, in some cases, representatives from the winery) mingled among the tables and engaged with diners, answering any questions they might have.
Over ribollita, we talked with Susanna Grassi from I Fabbri about the stone-terraced vineyards of Lamole, where her delightfully lilting version of Chianti Classico comes from. With the tagliata di manzo, we met Giulia Cecchi from Famiglia Cecchi and Castello di Montsanto, and chatted about the subtleties of Castellina’s terroir. While the cuisine and experience was undeniably high-end, this was a far cry from the stuffy atmosphere of a typical wine dinner. It was downright exuberant. At one point, sommelier Maia Parish came by and described the personalities of two of the wines as “Bruce Wayne and Batman,” a perfect description.
While the food and wine alchemy was worthy of its own article, I couldn’t shake one headline: how lucky gastronomes and wine obsessives in Denver are to have the Tavernetta team …
The wine pairings at dinner alone showed how versatile these wines are; more versatile than I was giving them credit for. It was no wonder why the producers all seemed so happy to be there: this wasn’t just another tour stop on some exhausting sales circuit. This was a celebration of everything they do, and we felt honored to be there with them, toasting their toil and promising to return to their wines.
