Brunello di Montalcino
Imagine a wine so rare that there is only one producer. And that producer only declared four vintages in the first 57 years of production. That’s the story of the modern production of Brunello di Montalcino. Brunello is the local name for Sangiovese, the grape that makes Chianti, Brunello’s companion in the Tuscany region of Central Italy. Though Chianti is certainly the more famous of the two, Brunello is arguably more celebrated. Today there are many more producers, but the wines legend lives on.
A wine known as Montalcino was recorded as early as the 14th century, but unlike in many regions of Italy, the Montalcino area didn’t develop a long history of wine production. (Perhaps the dominance and proximity of Chianti quelled any need for competition?) Beginning in the early 19th century a red wine from Tuscany called “Brunello” began appearing. Soon after a farmer in the Montalcino region isolated the grape making these wines (a clonal selection of Sangiovese). That man’s grandson took over the vines and released the first Brunello di Montalcino in 1888.
The wine was aged for 10 years in large wood barrels before bottling. Consider this for a second, this man created a wine that virtually had no market, but had to wait a decade before he sold the first bottle! Modern requirements for aging aren’t that long, but still require 4 years for normale versions of Brunello and 5 years for riserva. The other requirement for the DOCG Brunello di Montalcino—the very first region to be given the honor—are that the wine must be made from 100% Sangiovese.
The climate of the Montalcino is ideal for ripening Sangiovese grapes, and this ripeness shows in the final product. Brunello di Montalcino is a wine full of extract with a full body and assertive tannins; common aromas are of berries, cherries, leather and chocolate. The wine is very intense and has the capacity to age for very long periods.
In part because of the intensity of the wine, and in part because of the desire of producers to release their product faster (in order to get capital for running their operations) the first “junior DOC” was granted to Brunello di Montalcino. Rosso di Montalcino—sometimes called “Baby Brunello”—is wine from the same region as Brunello and from 100% Sangiovese. The only difference is that the aging requirements for Rosso are much less—1 year total aging before release, of which at least six months is in oak.
After seeing the success of the Super Tuscans, some producers in Brunello wanted to emulate them and produce wines with international varietals like Cabernet blended into their Sangiovese. This was of course strictly forbidden in Brunello, so the government set up a DOC to allow producer to bottle wines made from non-Sangiovese grapes. Sant’Antimo DOC has the same boundaries as the Brunello region, but producers can operate outside of the restrictive DOCG rules and still have a respectable DOC in which to sell their wines.
