A Boot-Full of Wine

6 October 2010

Wines designated Rosso di Montalcino live in the shadow of their more famous and often more robust sibling, those labelled as Brunello. Often, however, you can get a Rosso di Montalcino of exceptional quality for a fraction of the price of a Brunello. Most Brunello producers produce a Rosso also, and thus quality levels vary as much as on the Brunello spectrum. The best Rossi di Montalcino can be even better than many Brunelli.

Here are three of note that I have tried recently:

Casanova di Neri – Rosso di Montalcino – DOC – 2008 (17.5).

This wine is reminiscent of Australian wines for me, as it brims with sweet red fruit – more white skinned plum than cherry – but has high levels of natural acid and tannin due to its 100% Sangiovese Grosso content. The wine spends longer than usual for Rossi di Montalcino in oak – 12 months – and though I could not discern from the company’s website, I wondered if a percentage was American. It has the capacity to age for a further 5 years. 17.5 pts

Salvioni – Rosso di Montalcino – DOC – 2007 (17.5).

The lighter colour of this wine betrays its mid weight, yet belies its structure, acid and tannins. Another 100% Sangiovese Grosso wine, it has cherry and a hint of strawberries, and a lovely savoury, spicy edge with leather notes in particular, when I came back to it the next day. I did not feel the 14.5% alcohol was in any way detracting. Would develop for a further 5-8 years. 17.5 pts

Valdicava – Rosso di Montalcino – DOC – 2007 (18).

I defy anyone at a blind tasting not to pick this as a Brunello. In fact, the vines are from the very sites from which their Brunello is sourced, simply younger. (That is, in the replanting cycle, newer vines are used for the Rosso.) Spending even longer in oak – a good 5-6 months longer than the usual 6-8 months for most Rossi di Montalcino – this is a wine of power yet finesse, with deep red fruit character and tobacco and spice flavours. It will keep for the long haul – I would say 10 years easily! 18 pts

The cost of these wines? I got them all for between 20 and 30 Euro – with our exchange as it stands, that is about A$30 – 45. Great value indeed!

Ciao!

Brendan Jansen