Right off the bat, I need to say that this wine is a showstopper. I can’t ever recall encountering a Rosso that so faithfully telegraphs the spirit and might of Brunello di Montalcino. SommSelect has been preoccupied recently with a string of outstanding French wines, but it only takes one spellbinding Tuscan bottle for our hearts to immediately return to Italy.
So, while I had intended to sit down and take detailed notes, I’m now midway through my second glass and still can’t quite believe what I’m tasting. This wine is a tour de force. And at the cost, it embarrasses most Brunellos I’ve tasted this year. Our customers have enjoyed a multiple vintage-long love affair with La Torre both for drinking on release, but especially as a “secret weapon” for cellar aging. We adore these wines already, and this 2014 raises the bar again.
Amongst the approximately 250 estates currently bottling Brunello di Montalcino, La Torre’s wines are neither the most well known, nor the most expensive. And if you ever happen to walk down a bumpy dirt road in this village and past the rickety sign that reads “La Torre”, you will only find a family farmhouse, a small backyard of vines, and a rustic cellar from which the few hundred cases of this wine are released each year. There is no lavish tasting room, no hospitality personnel, and no “hype” or marketing here. There is, however, a decades-long history of producing extraordinarily long lasting and deeply traditional wines from organically farmed fruit. It’s no surprise that La Torre has become an important, sentimental favorite property for SommSelect and our customers

Perched on a hilltop 5 miles south of the town of Montalcino, La Torre is one of coolest and highest elevated properties in the region. This unique site affords the wines remarkable energy, and minerality, both acting as a counterpoint to the power and intensity for which the appellation is known. In the cellar these qualities are preserved by a hands-off approach to vinification: All grapes are destemmed and fermentation occurs naturally and slowly via indigenous airborne yeasts. There is no temperature control or any of the chemical additions or cellar tricks that have become common practice in this region. At La Torre, mother nature is the winemaker: Warm temperatures kick start the fermentation in Autumn and then the cooler Winter season naturally clarifies the wine. Aging is carried out in a few small and very old French oak barrels for 18 months. The finished product is neither filtered nor fined before bottling. The finished product is a wine that possesses a three dimensional “aliveness” and purity seldom found in Montalcino.

Perhaps the most important point to make about that La Torre’s Rosso di Montalcino bottling is that, except for one detail, it is a Brunello di Montalcino in every way. This wine comes from the exact same tiny vineyard, the same fruit, and the same cellar as La Torre’s outstanding Brunello di Montalcino. The one and only difference is that the wine is not aged as long in oak barrels or bottle—that’s it. So, while most properties in Montalcino use their Rosso bottling as a dumping ground for inferior fruit and young vines, La Torre’s Rosso is essentially a slightly younger, less oak-influenced version of their Brunello. Our intent here is not to drill into everyone’s head that this is a “deal”. Rather, we want to stress that the additional freshness and energy in this Rosso bottling makes it a clever addition to one’s cellar. We’ve enjoyed older vintages of this wine and even in off years, it has aged gracefully and flatteringly. This bottle will mature and evolve for many, many years to come—and we won’t be surprised if it ultimately outlives La Torre’s Brunello of the same vintage.

The 2014 La Torre Rosso di Montalcino is dark crimson with garnet and orange hues on the rim. On the nose, the wine is classic Montalcino: black cherries, blackberry, ripe red currants, fresh roses, dried blood orange peel, freshly oiled leather, red tobacco, wild Tuscan herbs and dried clay. This is a powerful and assertive wine, with robust tannins and palpable energy on the palate. Layers of black cherry, dried plums, cigar box and South Asian dried spices round out its extremely long finish. As always, La Torre’s Rosso bottling gratifies instantly as a “pop and pour” wine for your next dinner. But as I stressed above the secret here lies in its ageability, so this wine is always included on my short list of smart cellar purchases. If drinking today, decant the wine for one hour before serving in large Bordeaux stems. This is a wine that will make magic with any grilled protein you can throw at it—Lamb chops, a Porterhouse, or even Italian sausages. With a memorable wine like this, you can’t go wrong!