Buying a Brunello di Montalcino from Bolsignano is like buying a custom-tailored suit for an off-the-rack price—maybe even less, come to think of it. That’s our kind of “boutique” wine, and this hand-crafted 2018 is an über-classic expression of Montalcino Sangiovese: muscular, woodsy, tangy, and strikingly pure. There’s no excess weight or heavy oak influence, just a resonant chord of black and red cherry fruit and a cascade of mineral/earth notes that evoke the thickly wooded hillsides that characterize Montalcino. In most instances, a wine this rare, from Certified Organic vineyards, costs more, not less, than larger-scale brands. That’s how scarcity works, right? Well, not here. This is hand-crafted excellence at an exceedingly fair price—one of the best Tuscan wine buys out there!
Roberto Rubegni is a one-man-show who does two things—Sangiovese wine and extra-virgin olive oil—and does them very well. He just doesn’t do either in large quantities, which makes this wine that much more special: Rubegni produces about 4,000 bottles of Brunello di Montalcino per year, from one of the most painstakingly farmed, Certified Organic vineyards in Montalcino. Teeming with butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, and rabbits, it is an oasis of biological activity and harmony.
Experts have classified 2018, as a relatively cool, “classic” vintage in Montalcino, so the extended aging this bottling underwent before release—standard practice for Bolsignano—has served it well: It aged for 36 months in oak casks of various sizes before bottling, then more time resting in bottle before its commercial release. Characteristic of the vintage, it is not a chunky, big-boned expression but rather more linear and perfumed. Decanting is recommended.
This is very “traditional” Brunello, pouring a deep garnet red and jumping from the glass with aromas of red and black cherry, currants, blackberry, black plum, anise, rose petals, underbrush, aromatic herbs, and sandalwood spice. It is full-bodied without being ponderous, its concentrated fruit checked by plenty of freshness and fine-grained tannins. Serve it in Bordeaux stems at 60-65 degrees with a beautiful ribeye steak, some duck confit, or, on the vegetarian side, pasta with wild mushrooms or risotto with white (or black) truffles.
