2011 Rosso di Montalcino

The Salvionis are one of the great families in Italian wine. A slight bout of the flu was not enough to slow down the boundless, gregarious Giulio Salvioni. These days, Salvioni is accompanied by his daughter, Alessia, very much a chip off the block in her pure energy. The Salvionis have two cellars, one in town, the other adjacent to their vineyards. Both are tiny, functional and stripped down to the bare bones. This year I was shocked to see a new labeling machine in the Montalcino cellar, the most modern piece of equipment to appear here in decades! Previously, all 10,000 or so bottles were labeled by hand. Salvioni produces four casks of wine in each vintage, all from Brunello-designated vineyards. In some vintages, one (or sometimes, two) casks are declassified to Rosso, as was the case in 2011 and 2009 respectively. In the great years, such as 2006 (and likely 2012) there is no Rosso. The Salvioni Brunellos stand out for their exceptional purity of fruit, finesse and texture, the results of a great site, meticulous farming and a traditional approach to winemaking. These remain some of the most distinctive wines in Montalcino.