Word: brunellos
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Sometimes you have to travel to a wine's home in order to understand its character. Last fall, after the harvest in Italy, I stood atop the ruined fortress that looms over the ancient town of Montalcino, the birthplace of Brunello, just 25 miles southeast of Siena. From the fortress, I devoured the panoramic view of the Tuscan countryside. In the distance, the grapevine leaves were as colorful as New England's best in October. Clumps of olive trees and upright cypresses were shadowed by the brooding Mount Amiata. The whole ambiance was distilled in the Brunello I was drinking...
...Brunello, made from the Sangiovese Grosso grape, is often referred to as Chianti on hormones--it's bigger, bolder and pricier. The Biondi-Santi winery in Montalcino is credited with making the first Brunello around 1888, and the firm still produces a glorious version. But it took two winemaking brothers from Long Island, N.Y., John and Harry Mariani, to raise the wine to fame. In the late 1970s, the Marianis bought a medieval castle in the Montalcino area, Castello Banfi, started growing Sangiovese Grasso grapes on some of the surrounding 7,100 acres and began making their own Brunello. Thanks...
This year, so many people asked me for Brunello recommendations that I thought a tasting with friends around my kitchen table was in order. After all, at prices like these--bottles range from $30 to $120, with most hovering around $60--we want to minimize mistakes...
...covered the labels on 12 bottles to make sure we tasted without prejudice. During the tasting, two wine styles emerged. One was marked by a bright red color, had flavors and aromas of toasted cherry vanilla and was kind of clunky in the mouth. While this modern style of Brunello is flashier and gets more of the attention, all my friends preferred the more traditional style. Its color was brown tinged and its texture more supple. Flavor and aroma observations that we shouted out included black olive, summer cherry, cedar and forest honey, but to me a wonderful Brunello will...
...guided tasting with sommeliers Andrea Sturniolo or Ian Domenico D'Agata is vastly entertaining and full of great tips (Aglianico grapes make Italy's best affordable, high-quality reds; 1998 was a very good year for Chianti, but not for its pricey neighbor in Montalcino?for a Brunello, choose a '97 or a '99). Rather than intimidating neophytes, the academy's mission is to show people how to judge wine for themselves and feel at home with the rich culture and traditions of the grape...