Casisano makes this in the hills south of Montalcino, where Sangiovese is grown for one wine and one wine only. The 2015 vintage across Tuscany is remembered as a warm, generous year, and the wines from it tend to show ripe fruit with the structure still intact underneath.
- Sangiovese, in its Brunello guise.
- Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, Tuscany.
- 2015, a warm and highly regarded vintage.
- Full body, high tannin, high acidity.
- Dry, 14.5% alcohol.
How it is made
Brunello di Montalcino is one of Italy's strictest appellations. It must be 100% Sangiovese, and it must spend a minimum of two years in wood followed by four months in bottle before it can be released, with the whole ageing period running to at least five years from harvest. Nothing is blended in, nothing is added to soften it.
How it tastes
Red cherry sits at the front, with dried herbs, leather and tobacco moving in behind it. The tannins are firm and the acidity is high, which is what holds a wine of this weight together. The fruit and the spice notes integrate rather than sit apart, and the finish is long, dry and structured.
Where it comes from
Montalcino is a hill town in the south of Tuscany, warmer and drier than Chianti further north, with vineyards sitting at altitude on soils that shift between clay, sand and marine deposits. That combination of warmth and elevation is what gives Brunello its ripeness and its grip at the same time.
Good to know
Brunello was one of the first Italian wines to be granted DOCG status, in 1980. The name comes from the old local word for the grape, which growers once called brunello, meaning brownish, for the dark colour the Sangiovese skins take on as they ripen.
