I like to think I know a little something about Italian wine, so I’m ashamed to admit I knew nothing about the Padelletti family of Montalcino—whose historical significance in this fabled wine zone is on par with Biondi-Santi—until recently. Ian Cauble and I were visiting Montalcino last October and stayed in a B&B in Montalcino called Palazzo Saloni, which, as I later learned, is run by the Padallettis—a family whose roots in this fortified Tuscan village go back to the 13th century.
The lady who hand-wrote my bill was none other than Claudia Susanna Padelletti, the current proprietor of one of Montalcino’s original wineries; it is headquartered nearby, in a tiny subterranean cellar off a narrow street named for her ancestors. Twenty years visiting Italy and selling Italian wine and I’d never seen a bottle of Padalletti…I felt like a total hack. Then again, maybe I can be forgiven—Padalletti wines are produced in eyedropper quantities, from just four hectares of vineyards, and aren’t even well known in Italy. And just as Ian and I began scheming to direct-import the wines, we learned that the terrific California importer Oliver McCrum had picked them up. So here we are: For most American Brunello lovers, this 2012 is an introduction to one of Montalcino’s founding wineries, and it’s an impressive debut, to say the least. It epitomizes traditional Brunello di Montalcino, displaying the structure and woodsy aromatics of the Sangiovese grape in a way I wish more modern Brunellos did. This is a must-have for aficionados of this region and grape; I’m sorry it took me this long to find it!
Historical documents show that the Padellettis were farming vineyards in Montalcino by the late 1500s, but wine wasn’t their principal occupation: generations of doctors, lawyers, diplomats, and university professors kept an eye on the family land, and in 1925 a Padelletti was instrumental in creating the first cantina sociale (winemaking cooperative) in Montalcino (which was run by Tancredi Biondi of Biondi-Santi), but production under the Padelletti label never really grew. The Padelletti cellars are still underneath a 16th century family home in Montalcino proper; their four hectares of organically farmed vineyards are on the northeast slope of the Montalcino hill, and even today, production hovers around 8,000 bottles per year (which is likely why they haven’t had a big presence in our market).
Tasting Padalletti’s 2012 Brunello di Montalcino is like being reunited with a dear old friend. To me, this wine is the ultimate in classically styled Sangiovese: high-toned and redolent of dark cherries and smoky, humid underbrush. The Padellettis’ four hectares are all in a single contiguous plot situated at 430 meters elevation, with a mix of soils that includes marl, sandstone, and clay. The Brunello is fermented in old concrete tanks and aged in large, used Slavonian and French oak botti (vats) for 30 months before bottling. There’s then a minimum period of bottle aging, per Montalcino DOCG law, before the wine is released for sale.
The result is a wine of firm structure and an aromatic profile that takes you right to the thickly wooded hillsides of Montalcino. In the glass, it’s a medium garnet red moving to orange at the rim, with aromas of black cherry, raspberry, blood orange peel, leather, cedar, tobacco, and forest floor. Medium-plus in body and very focused and lifted on the palate, this is a red whose power is expressed not in the weight of its extract on the palate but in its grip and persistence. Although it is just starting to reveal its charms now after 30-60 minutes in a decanter, this is a Brunello that will age gracefully over the next 10-15 years with ease; think of a bear standing on its hind legs and revealing its full height and you have an idea of what this wine has in store for you a few years down the line. Serve it in Bordeaux stems at 60-65 degrees next to the best cut of steak you can find, or if you’re inclined to venture a little further afield, this would be a great wine to pair with wild boar. The attached roast would be a spot-on pairing, the next best thing to actually being there. Cheers!
— David Lynch
