Brunello di Montalcino is the ‘big event’ wine; Rosso di Montalcino is what you drink on all the other days. But sometimes it’s the so-called ‘little’ wine that speaks the loudest.
I’m proud to say that I identified today’s wine ‘blind,’ and it’s not because I’m such a great blind taster but because it is so unmistakably Tuscan Sangiovese. There wasn’t any excess oak, or extract, to cloud my judgement, just a telltale melding of black cherry fruit and the woodsy scents of a dense forest grove. It also helped, of course, that it is a Rosso di Montalcino—100% Sangiovese aged just six months in barrel and six in bottle before release, designed for young drinking. Except that not everyone in Montalcino makes their Rosso this way; some producers aim for bigger, oakier, more blockbuster Rossos designed to raise eyebrows and build hype for their even-bigger-blockbuster Brunellos still resting in the cellar (Brunello di Montalcino, by law, is aged a minimum of four years before release, including two years in barrel, making Rosso not merely the first glimpse at a specific vintage but a “cash flow” wine as well). For reasons both stylistic and financial, I often prefer Rossos to Brunellos, at least in terms of the relative Sangiovese-for-dollar they offer. I thought Camigliano’s 2015 was spot-on in this regard—deeply flavorful, as you’d expect from this exceptional European vintage, but also bright, aromatic, unadorned, and easy to drink. It’s also a remarkable value in an increasingly expensive category; Rosso di Montalcino was originally designed as a stock-up-by-the-case red, and this one makes good on that promise. This is versatile, stylish ‘house red’ material for all you Italophiles out there.
Camigliano is a relatively large producer in Montalcino, and undoubtedly one of the region’s showpiece properties—it’s one of those Tuscan properties that was once a medieval town populated by a multitude of families. Historically, Camigliano was what’s known as a frazione (“fraction”)—a small ‘satellite’ village of a larger municipality, in this case Montalcino. The sprawling property, which covers more than 1,300 acres, was acquired by entrepreneur Walter Ghezzi in the late-1950s and remains in the Ghezzi family today; they currently farm about 220 acres of vineyards, most of which are planted to Sangiovese. This is a spare-no-expense kind of operation whose massive investments have included the wholesale conversion of their vineyards to organic agriculture.
The state-of-the-art, underground facilities at Camigliano include an aging cellar filled with both French and Slavonian oak barrels of larger capacities—60 to 160 hectoliters—and this Rosso spent six months in mostly used vessels, then another six in bottle, before release. Among the many features that confirm this Rosso’s ‘Sangiovese-ness’ is its color—a bright, reflective garnet red (as opposed to inky, opaque ruby) with slight hints of pink and orange at the rim. The aromas are a perfumed, evocative mix of black cherry, raspberry, red and black currant, dried orange peel, oiled leather, underbrush, and a hint of charred wood. Medium-bodied and shot through with palate-enlivening energy, perhaps its most appealing feature is its balance: one moment it’s a wave of sappy cherry fruit; the next a hint of recently extinguished campfire; the next a delicate dusting of sweet oak spice. I really this wine’s modesty; there’s everything you need here without any excess. Decant it about 30 minutes before serving in Bordeaux stems at 60-65 degrees and pair it with just about anything, really—beef, pork, chicken…even some richer fish. Given all my “tastes like the woods” talk, attached is a recipe for hunter’s-style chicken (a.k.a.
chasseur, or
cacciatore) that feels very right for this bottle. Cheers!
