Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2021

The Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2021 from Podere Salicutti is a pale, fragrant Sangiovese from Montalcino that favours freshness over power. It comes across as refined without feeling polished, offering real drinking pleasure already in its youth, though it will grow deeper and more complex over the coming years.

The 4.5 hectares of vines grow on marl soils 60 to 80 million years old, rich in limestone, just 35 kilometres from the Tyrrhenian Sea. The wine is a blend across the Sorgente, Piaggione, Teatro and Piaggione Alto sites: Teatro, at 520 metres, ripens late; Piaggione offers fossil-rich limestone soils facing east-southeast; and Sorgente contributes heavier soils at 450 metres. Sabine and Felix Eichbauer have run the estate since 2016.

Pure Sangiovese, hand-selected. Winemaker Gianni Fabbri ferments spontaneously at temperatures up to 28°C in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, then presses gently in a traditional hydraulic press with a wooden grid. The wine is aged for three years in French tonneaux and in large casks of 10 to 40 hectolitres made from French and Slavonian oak, then bottled unfiltered and aged a further twelve months in bottle.

On the nose, lavender, violet and verbena, sweet cherries, dark raspberries and blueberries, along with cinnamon, orange zest, sandalwood and oak, peat, forest floor, iron and blood orange. The wine drinks juicy and energetic, with silky tannins and an ethereal aromatic quality; amarena cherry, herbs, spices and understated oak carry through to the long finish.

In 1996, Salicutti became the first estate in Montalcino to receive organic certification; since 2022 the estate has farmed biodynamically under Demeter guidelines, and the label carries the Demeter logo. Salicutti is a member of the respekt-BIODYN association of 36 European winegrowers. Annual production is 15,000 to 20,000 bottles.