I never understood the appeal of Brunello di Montalcino. I haven't bought many because it's expensive, and it usually tastes like a bulky Super Tuscan to me, even though it should contain only Sangiovese. Last year I went to an oenophile's dream tasting in Montalcino. Sitting at a table with
About 20% of all Brunello di Montalcino wine is now exported to the United States. However, we rarely get to sample the older Brunellos, which is a shame because they are made to last for decades. I got a chance at the recent Benvenuto Brunello event in New York. This
It was a great summer for drinking second wines. During Vinexpo in June, there was the vibrant 2014 Fleur de Pédseclaux, sampled from the barrel at the reawakened château’s dazzling new winery in Pauillac, just across the road from the Rothschilds. Then there was Silvio Nardi’s Rosso di Montalcino at a dinner
Franco Biondi Santi, the patriarch of the family credited for having laid the foundations of the prestigious Brunello di Montalcino appellation, died last weekend at the age of 91. A staunch guardian of the tradition started by his grandfather Ferrucio, both by the style of the family estate's wines and
Trying to navigate Piedmont by using GPS is like asking your high school Spanish teacher to translate street talk in the heart of San Juan. You'll get some things right, some wrong, and you're likely to eventually make an embarrassing mistake. And so we were about 40 minutes late in
“It was the 1995 Soldera [Brunello] that did it,” laughs Jan Hendrik Erbach, co-owner of Pian‘dell Orino in Montalcino with wife Caroline Pobitzer. A rustically attractive man with the charisma of a TV talk show host and the Einstein-like brain of crack geologist, Jan’s passion for terroir is easily conveyed
Have we heard enough? Is Brunello dead? Have the Italians taken one of their greatest wine symbols and thrown it to the devil? From the looks of it, that seems to be the perception in the shattered market of late.-read more-