Like some of the other
old-school Montalcino stalwarts we’ve featured here on SommSelect, Lisini was
one of about 20 founding members of the Brunello di Montalcino consorzio which was created in 1967. The property, which covers about
150 hectares of land in total, is located in the southwest corner of the
Montalcino DOCG, near the hamlet of Sant’Angelo in Colle. The 24 hectares of
vineyards open up toward the south, as is typical here on Montalcino’s “back
slope,” yet while conventional wisdom says that wines from this part of the
zone skew richer and burlier, Lisini’s perfumed, fine-tuned wines have always
defied that characterization (much like those of Soldera and Poggio di Sotto,
which are also on Montalcino’s south side).

Without lots of heavy oak influence or excess extract clouding your vision, what you get from this 2015 from Lisini is an exceptionally vivid look at the Sangiovese grape in all its smoky, savory glory. For the Burgundy-heads out there, the analog would be a full-bodied Gevrey-Chambertin—lots of deep black cherry fruit accented by pronounced mineral and underbrush notes. In the glass, it’s a deep, nearly opaque garnet red moving to pink and a slight hint of brick orange at the rim, with heady aromas of dark woodland berries, black cherry, plum skin, bay leaf, grilled meat, oiled leather, and lots of smoky underbrush. Within the world of Brunello, it would rank as medium-plus in body with terrific freshness and impeccable balance. There’s a lot of delicious, refined drinking ahead of this wine, so get yourself cooking and pulling some corks. You’ll be hard-pressed to find another red at this price point that brings so much to the table.