Cerbaiona Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2023

The 2023 Cerbaiona Rosso di Montalcino is a highly acclaimed, 100% Sangiovese from Tuscany. Calling this a "Rosso" is honestly a disservice. In the hands of a legendary estate like Cerbaiona, this is essentially a baby Brunello that just happens to be accessible a few years earlier. It completely shatters the ceiling of the category and offers a brilliant, high-definition snapshot of their terroir. The 2023 is all about vibrant, electric tension. The nose doesn't try to fake weight or hide behind oak. It explodes with pure, unmanipulated Sangiovese character. This is the best deal in Sangiovese if not Italy, period.

With roughly 7,000 bottles produced, the Rosso comes from various parts of the vineyard, while the Brunello is drawn from the crest of the hill. It pours a bright ruby hue and opens with wild raspberries, violets, sweet herbs and fresh, layered earth. Medium-bodied, it has polished tannins, refreshing acidity and a saline, citrus-tinged finish that keeps it light on its feet. It should drink well over the next decade.

Cerbaiona's winemaking process is simple. Hand-picked grapes are crushed in a vintage wood-sided press before fermenting in cement tanks. After settling, the Brunello spends at least four years in cask and at least 6 months in bottle before being released. Nothing is added (no yeasts, no enzymes) or removed (no fining or filtration).

There are now over 200 bottling producers of Brunello, but when people speak of the top tier, we are talking about an interchangeable 10 names depending one’s preference stylistically. Soldera, Biondi Santi, Salvioni and Cerbaiona would be most people’s pick for top five Brunello producers (not necessarily in that order). What makes the Cerbaiona Rosso so unique is the conscious coupling of great terroir and minimalist intervention. What arrives is a clear representation of one of the greatest Brunello vineyards bottling wine today.

Cerbaiona was founded by retired Alitalia pilot Diego Molinari in 1977. The winery has remained one of the most sought after and historically important Brunello wineries from their very first bottling in the early '80s. The Cerbaiona vineyard had been a legend for nearly 200 years but with the advent of the Brunello DOCG, it immediately began to shine on the world stage gaining cult status, sought after by collectors and connoisseurs. Consistently listed in the top five by Brunello collectors and critics alike, the secret to the success of Cerbaiona was in the terroir and vineyard microclimate as well as the traditional interpretation in the cellar. This created the perfect symbiosis of age-worthiness and delicious complexity, which is the hallmark of great wines.

In the fall of 2015, Diego Molinari, age 84, sold Cerbaiona to a group of investors led by Gary Rieschel, an American wine collector, and Matthew Fioretti, the estate's new manager who runs all aspects of Cerbaiona. Maurizio Bovini, with his decades of experience in vineyard and cellar management, joined Cerbaiona in April 2016. This group has brought together its passion for farming and wine to guide and move forward Cerbaiona. At the end of 2015, Cerbaiona converted to organic farming.

The vineyards at Cerbaiona consist of three plots planted in 1978, 1983 and 2000 at 3,600 vines per hectare. One of the projects for the new owners was to begin to increase the vine density as well as replace retired vines with the stock of Sangiovese clones specifically suited to the soil and micro-climate. The intentions here are to magnify the great terroir and fruit of the already exceptional vines while maintaining the traditional style and unique reflections of the already great wines that have been produced from the estate.

Today, Cerbaiona produces 10,000-15,000 bottles of Brunello di Montalcino per year. Depending on the vintage, 3,000-7,000 bottles of Rosso di Montalcino are also produced. To ensure quality and selection, sometimes small lots of Sangiovese IGT are also bottled.