Sesti "Monteleccio" Toscana Rosso 2021

Sesti's Monteleccio is an incredible value in Tuscan wine. It is their first bottling each vintage while they wait for their Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino to age, but what this means is that it is always more approachable and enjoyable out of the gate. Earth, ripe cherry & mushrooms leap out on the nose. The mouth provides sour cherry, fennel & mineral notes, bright acidity and punchy fruit qualities. This bottling is earthy, inviting, zingy and ready to drink. This is a perfect pizza wine.

When it comes to legendary wine regions like Brunello di Montalcino, you can often glean the potential of a producer’s range, in terms of quality and value, by first tasting their entry-level cuvée. With Sesti, this is certainly true — the stellar Monteleccio offers a tantalizing taste of the family’s world-class Brunello. The reason for the elegance and deliciousness of this bottling is no mystery: winemaker Elisa Sesti uses Brunello-quality Sangiovese grapes to make the Monteleccio.

Across her lineup, she pampers the grapes similarly, using the same organic and biodynamic approaches. Farming for the “Monteleccio” is the same as for their Brunellos. They adhere strictly to lunar and planetary cycles to guide them. She also uses the same, massive 30-hectoliter oak botti to age all of the wines. What’s the difference between the family’s Brunello and Monteleccio, then? It’s primarily a question of character, as Elisa bottles the Monteleccio after one year of aging rather than the three for Brunello in order to capture the young, fresh charm of Sangiovese.

Giuseppe Maria “Giugi” Sesti did not initially choose a career in wine. Instead, his Venetian upbringing inspired him to study music, art and astronomy, the last of which became his profession. In 1975, Giugi and his wife moved their family to Tuscany, where they bought the abandoned ruins of the hamlet and castle of Argiano, slowly clearing the land and restoring the buildings to create the breathtaking estate that stands today. At this point a father of four and author of books on astronomy, Giugi found spare time to plant vineyards on the slopes around the castle. The children helped pick and stomp grapes from the earliest age, and in 1999, the couple’s only daughter, Elisa, joined the estate full time. Today she is an active partner in all aspects of the vineyard management and winemaking.

While helping out at neighboring estates, Giugi observed that simplicity and careful attention were the most important factors in producing great wines, while chemical intervention skewed their delicate balance, so he determined to make entirely natural wines right from the start. He even took a pioneering extra step by applying his prodigious knowledge of the moon’s influence on living things to his vineyard management and winemaking. Today the family continues this thoroughly eco-friendly philosophy, and Elisa’s primary concern is the materia prima, or raw material, that goes into the wine.