2020 Brunello di Montalcino Giovanni Neri

The 2020 Brunello Di Montalcino Giovanni Neri boasts a darker red/purple hue and is completely different, offering aromas of dark mineral earth, polished leather, sappy herbs, black cherry compote, dark chocolate, and menthol. Fleshy and full, it saturates the palate with lush, ripe tannins and a more pronounced saltiness, giving the wine a mouthwatering feel and a long-lasting finish, with notes of blood orange lasting on the back palate. It deserves time in the cellar before drinking over the coming 20 years.

The Casanova di Neri 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Giovanni Neri is a lifted and punchy wine with great vertical delivery of aromas. It ferments with 10% to 15% whole-cluster fruit. Giovanni and Gianlorenzo Neri noticed brown stems and perfumed aromas, and these qualities gave them the inspiration to use the stems. Cherry and red fruit aromas are followed by pepper, wild spice, sweet earth and dusty pencil shaving. There are hints of saddle leather on the one hand and pressed rosemary herb on the other. At the very end, there is a hint of something that tastes like a crunchy breakfast bacon strip. I do love the intensity and the energy of this wine. Only 8,600 bottles were created. Fruit comes from a seven-hectare parcel in the Sesti area (along the dirt road that goes from Castelnuovo dell'Abate to Sant'Angelo in Colle) that was purchased in 2017. The vines were planted in the 1970s. The wine ages in tonneaux for 30 months, and the tannins are beautifully integrated.

Honouring owner Giacomo Neri’s father, the seven-hectare Giovanni Neri site is just two kilometres east of Tenuta Nuova, in the area of Sesta. It sees about 15% whole-bunch fruit, which helps to curb alcohol levels. Intense dark cherry is suffused with carob, mace and toasty wood. Weighty and chock full of dense creamy black fruit elaborately swaddled by velvety tannins, it cinches in at the right moment, while luscious acidity illuminates the whole.