2017 Rosso di Montalcino

I still remember the first time I tasted a Brunello from Le Ragnaie. It was in 2009 at the “Italian Wine Masters” tasting in New York City, where I met Riccardo Campinoti and tasted his 2005 Brunello di Montalcino. I was amazed from the first tilt of the glass. This was nothing like any other wine at the event. At that time, finding such a pure expression of Sangiovese in Montalcino was not easy, yet in front of me was a wine of pure berry, florals, Tuscan spice, and minerals - lots and lots of minerals. It was love at first sight.

Today Le Ragnaie continues to excel with that same approach to purity, yet now they do so with a range of different expressions found throughout Montalcino’s diverse terroir. Located just south of the town of Montalcino, the Le Ragnaie vineyard (the one that started it all) is the highest elevation vineyard in the region with a large portion of old vines, which lends the V.V. a remarkable depth, but also a fresh character even in the warmest vintages. The Fornace vineyard takes advantage of the region's southern climate in Castelnuovo dell’Abate, with thirty-year-old vines planted in soils consisting of calcareous marl, galestra, and sandstone. And then, of course, there is the first bottling of the Casanovina Montosoli in 2015 (a vineyard that requires no introduction); here, Campinoti’s east-facing parcel sits at 300 meters a.s.l. in soils of true galestro. Frankly, it ranks among the top wines of the vintage. The classic Brunello is today a blending of their different locations, and it’s an overperformer in every way. Vineyard practices are organic, and the winery, although modern and spotless, practices all aging of their Brunello in large Slavonian oak botti. In 2015, Le Ragnaie hits it out of the park!