Although it has been largely forgotten due to current events, something momentous happened on January 2nd of this year: Brunello di Montalcino wines from the hotly anticipated 2015 vintage were officially released into the market. Today’s silky and sumptuous ’15 from Capanna is the first of what I anticipate will be many ’15 Brunellos to hit your inbox this year, and we couldn’t have picked a better one to start with.
Capanna is one of Montalcino’s all-time greats—one of the 25 founding members of the Brunello di Montalcino
consorzio back in 1966 and one of the historic farms perched on the “Montosoli” hill, on Montalcino’s north slope. To me, this is the epitome of aromatic, gutsy, traditional Brunello di Montalcino; in a hot, ripe vintage like 2015, you get a little thicker layer of baby fat, but Capanna’s trademark nerve and varietal purity remain on full display. As was the case elsewhere in Europe, some ’15s went a little overboard on the ripeness and extraction, to the point where they didn’t resemble their classical selves (Cru Beaujolais, I’m looking at you). This one strikes the right balance, offering seriously delicious drinking now but also promising to evolve positively over the next decade-plus. It’s a harbinger of good things to come, so don’t miss it!
The Cencioni family has owned Capanna since 1957, and, as mentioned above, they were one of the 25 original members of the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino, which was founded the same year the Brunello di Montalcino DOC was codified into law. The positioning of their farm and their 20-ish hectares of vineyard simply couldn’t be better: They are perched near the top of a vine-draped hill called “Montosoli,” which, if it were in a French wine zone, would be classified as a grand cru. Montosoli, in fact, bears some resemblance to Burgundy’s Corton hill, in that it is a rounded outcropping with a diversity of exposures; Capanna’s vineyards have a southeasterly aspect, situated just upslope from other famous growers such as Livio Sassetti. Although Montalcino isn’t known for having the kind of ‘vineyard-designate’ culture that defines Barolo, or Burgundy, Montosoli’s cru status was given voice by the Altesino winery, which has bottled a vineyard-designate wine from the site since the late seventies.
Soils in Capanna’s Sangiovese vineyards, which range in altitude from 250-350 meters, are a type of friable marl known as galestro, which mixes clay, sandstone, limestone, and ancient marine fossils. Although they do not have certification, they employ organic practices in the vineyards and their production methods in the cellar are resolutely traditional: hand-harvested fruit is subjected to a long maceration on the grape skins (about 30 days) during fermentation, after which the wine is transferred to Slavonian oak casks of various sizes for three years of barrel age. It then aged further in bottle before its commercial release.
And now, finally, it has arrived—and what a wine it is already. Deep, powerful, and smelling of the dense woodlands that surround the Capanna vineyards, this is classic Montalcino Sangiovese given a turbo-boost in the 2015 vintage. In the glass, it’s a dense ruby-garnet moving to magenta and pink at the rim, with a complex tangle of aromas that includes juicy red and black cherries, plum, black raspberry, leather, tobacco, fennel seed, orange peel, and forest floor. It is full-bodied and luscious on the palate, without losing the tension and lift so critical to great Sangiovese; more so than its tannic structure, it’s the acidity in this wine that will preserve it well for a decade-plus in your cellar. If you’re opening a bottle now, which in my case will be impossible to resist, decant it an hour before serving in large Bordeaux stems at 60 degrees. And, much as I always want to get the biggest ribeye in the butcher shop when a wine like this is in the offing, I’m going to change gears today and suggest the attached Tuscan-style pasta recipe—a good project for all of us holed up at home right now. Enjoy!
