2020 Brunello di Montalcino

A deep red/brick color, the 2020 Brunello Di Montalcino is ripe with notes of black cherries, tea leaves, dark, sappy herbs, and forest floor. Full-bodied, it's ripe and inviting, with a velvety texture and a great warming finish, and while it's a ripe wine, it carries it with a weightless feel and does not feel heavy-handed. It should continue to drink well over the next 10-12 years.

The 2020 Brunello di Montalcino has an intruiguingly espressive nose of cured olives, white pepper, rhubarb, and raspberry coulis. The tannins are firm and grippy, framing the lively acidity. There is an impressive power to the finish, with black cherry and smoked meats lingering. This is deeper in color than many of the 2020 Brunellos.

The Casanova di Neri 2020 Brunello di Montalcino (with the white label) represents a departure from the norm. Because the Cerretalto was not produced, fruit from that vineyard with its reddish mineral-rich soils was directed here instead. For that reason, this wine is especially spicy, lifted and intense. Dark cherry fruit is followed by rusty nail, black pepper and milled spice. The wine is fermented in steel tanks, sees 20 days of skin maceration and ages in botte and tonneaux for over three years. The oak is very well integrated. This is a wine of character (with 98,000 bottles made).