UnderstandBrunello di Montalcino in 5 minutes | Italy's Longest Aging Wine

Brunella di Montalcino is Sangiovese in its absolute purest, most uncompromising, and longest-aged form. And in this video, I'm going to tell you exactly why, and in just five minutes, directly from the vineyards of Montalcino. Hello there, I am Jacqueline and welcome back to the channel Our Glass of Wine. Today I am going to be showing you how a unique mix of long-lived history and traditions, high altitude, warm Mediterranean winds, and incredibly strict winemaking laws will create a powerful and elegant red wine capable of aging gracefully for decades. The story of Brunello is a long one. It starts in the 19th century with a local agronomist named Clemente Santi who began vinifying a specific Sangiovese biotype on its own, and he began aging it for longer than anyone else around him bothered to. His vino scelto, or Brunello, won a medal from the local agricultural committee in 1865. The descendants of the Biondi-Santi family, and specifically his nephew Ferruccio Biondi-Santi, took that idea even further and began releasing what was considered the first official Brunello di Montalcino in the 1888 vintage, a bottle that still exists in the Biondi Center cellars today. Brunello earned DOC status in 1966 and in 1980 it became one of the very first Italian wines to receive a DOCG status, which is Italy's highest quality classification. So where exactly am I? Well, the production zone of Brunello covers just one municipality, Montalcino, where I am now in the province of Siena, Tuscany, about 40 kilometers south of the city. There are around 2,100 hectares of registered vineyards on this UNESCO World Heritage Hill. The altitudes will range from roughly 120 to 650 meters, and that range will create a real stylistic diversity. The southern slopes, where it's lower and warmer, will tend towards richer, more powerful expressions of Brunello. The north and east slopes, higher and cooler, will give you something more aromatic and elegant. We are here with one appellation, but genuinely two different wines and souls. The climate here is mainly a Mediterranean one. Relatively dry, and thanks to the shielding effect provided by the Monte Amiata, a volcanic mountain located in the south, we have a constant breeze and a lack of fog, so the grapes stay generally healthy, which is vital for the late ripening grape Sangiovese. Soils are generally varied and complex. Galestro, Aldarese, Sandstone, Limestone. But what they all share is that they're generally poor calcareous and low in water retention, exactly the kind of conditions that will help to limit yields and push concentration into the grapes as they ripen. As for the grapes, the official winemaking law, here called a disciplinare, reserves the name Brunello di Montalcino for a pure 100% Sangiovese wine, and prohibits any kind of blending with other varieties, which distinguishes Brunello from many other Sangiovese based appellations in the area, like Chianti or Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The name Brunello actually comes from the local dialect that is referring to the particularly dark hue of the Sangiovese berries grown in this specific area. But having perfect concentrated grapes is really only half the story. To truly understand Brunello, we have to look at what happens after the harvest, and for that we need to move into the cellar. Brunello di Montalcino is heavily defined by its exceptionally strict production rules and its long aging period. By law, the standard Brunello wine cannot be released until January 1st of the fifth year following the harvest. Yes, we need a stunning five years minimum of aging, which at least two full years of that must be spent in oak barrels and at least four months in the bottle. For a Riserva, which is only made in the absolute best vintages, these limits will go even further with six years of total aging, of which two must be in an oak barrel and a minimum of six months in the bottle. This massive time commitment explains a lot about the price and the prestige of the wine, but it also reflects it in the glass, where a classic Brunello will show a deep ruby red color that turns to a beautiful garnet as it ages. On the nose, we will find it intense and complex. You are going to get aromas of sour and black cherries, forest floor, vanilla, and as it gets older, amazing notes of leather, tobacco, and balsamic, or a herbaceous medicinal aroma. On the palate, it will be robust, warm, and dry with a serious structure behind the wine. Brunello has a natural high acidity with firm tannin, which gives it that structural backbone to help to age anywhere from 10 to 30 years or even more, and it allows it to be accompanied extremely well with rich, slow-cooked food like a Fiorentina steak, a braised beef, wild boar stew, and especially with aged hard cheeses. For notable producers, of course, Biondi Santi at Tenuta Greppo is the historic reference point. It's the family that essentially invented Brunello as we know it. Casanova Dineri became internationally famous when their Tenuta Nova in 2001 topped Wine Spectator's annual ranking. Castello Banfi represents a larger, globally distributed side of the appellation as well. Fattoria dei Barbi is a historic winery owned by the Colombini family since the Middle Ages. They have been producing Brunello since 1892 and were the first to actually export it from Europe to America and Asia. Personally, we also love Col d'Orcia, a great favorite of ours, and also check out smaller wineries like Canalicchio di Sopra. All right, and there was your guide to Brunello Montemontalcino in five minutes. If you learned something useful today, please leave a like below and be sure to subscribe for more wine education poured from our glass to yours. Thank you and cheers!