Brunello di Montalcino comes from a single municipality, Montalcino, in the hills south of Siena. It became a DOC in 1966 and a DOCG in 1980, one of the first Italian wines to receive the guarantee. It is made exclusively from Sangiovese, which here has always gone by the local name of Brunello.
A hill between three rivers
The area matches the municipal territory: 243.62 square kilometres bounded by the valleys of the Orcia, Asso and Ombrone rivers. Vineyards climb from 120 metres on the valley floors to 650 metres below Poggio Civitella, in a dry Mediterranean climate. Today Brunello covers more than 2,100 hectares, with an output of about 68,600 hectolitres.
Time as an ingredient
The regulations demand patience: Brunello cannot be released before 1 January of the fifth year after the harvest, after at least two years in wood and four months in bottle. The Riserva waits one more year, with six months in bottle. Minimum alcohol is 12.5%. The same vineyards also give Rosso di Montalcino, the younger and more approachable expression of the town's Sangiovese.
In the glass Brunello is garnet red, with aromas of cherry, violet, spice and leather that grow more complex with age; firm tannins and lively acidity make it a wine for long cellaring.
From Moscadello to Brunello
Montalcino was wine country as early as the Middle Ages, when the town statutes set the date of the harvest. Until the nineteenth century, however, the area's best-known wine was a sweet white, Moscadello. The turning point came in the middle of that century, when the first producers began to vinify Sangiovese on its own and age it for a long time. In Tuscany, Brunello shares the role of great Sangiovese red with Chianti Classico and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
