Each time I write a SommSelect offer, I ask myself the same thing: Why should the reader care about this wine? Why is it special? With La Torre, one of Montalcino’s unsung heroes, I feel like the answer’s so obvious at this point that nothing needs to be written.
But for those of you who may be new to SommSelect, or to La Torre, I’m happy to repeat myself: This is a foundational Italian wine—by which I mean the kind of wine I would recommend to someone who is just starting a wine collection and wants some cornerstone bottles to set them on their way. It is also one of the best examples of how so many Italian wines remain starkly undervalued in comparison to similarly world-class reds from other parts of the world. The price for today’s 2014 Brunello di Montalcino is completely incongruous to its quality and it stands as one of the greatest-value reds in Italy—a model of consistency and classic styling in a region whose producers have often chased “international” trends at their peril. La Torre Brunello is Montalcino Sangiovese as it is meant to be—a woodland creature, full of brambly black cherry fruit and loaded with tension, class, and elegance. Sorry to be redundant, but you need some in your cellar! It’s the real deal.
[*NOTE: This wine is only available as a pre-offer and will be shipping from our warehouse the week of April 29th.]
Here’s a little more detail on this legendary property: Releasing only about 1,000 cases of Brunello di Montalcino in any given vintage, La Torre has been one of the region’s artisanal benchmarks since its first vintage was released in 1982. Owned by the Anania family, who originally purchased the property in 1976, the estate includes just 5.6 hectares of vineyards in the commune of La Sesta, on the “south slope” of the Montalcino hill near the village of Sant’Angelo in Colle. Vineyards face south and southwest and sit at some of the highest elevations in Montalcino, with limestone-infused marls mixed with clay. As we’ve noted repeatedly in Brunello di Montalcino offers, the conventional wisdom on Montalcino is that the wines from vineyards on this south-facing slope are generally richer, broader styles in comparison to those from vineyards facing north. La Torre is one of several south-slope producers who turn such wisdom on its ear (others include Soldera and Poggio di Sotto) by producing wines that show off the bright acidity, perfumed aromatics, and savory, mineral edge of the Sangiovese grape. The term “fruit bomb” and Sangiovese don’t belong in the same sentence—not if you’re being true to the variety, which, physiologically, is not Cabernet-like in color and extract, much as some might try.
This is not to say that Brunello di Montalcino shouldn’t be powerful—it is structured, with a firm acid backbone and tannins derived both from the grapes and from long mandatory aging periods in wood. But great Brunello isn’t sweet and syrupy; it’s spicy, savory, smoky. A wine that evokes a walk in the forest and calls for well-charred steaks on the grill. La Torre’s Brunello toes the “traditional” line—it’s fermented in stainless steel tanks for about three weeks, then transferred to large, used, Slavonian oak botti (vats) for 42 months’ of aging (a small percentage of the wine spends 12 months in smaller barriques, which lends a touch of polish to the final wine). There’s also a substantial period of bottle aging before the wine is released into the market (by law, Brunello di Montalcino wines are released on January 1 of the year five years from the vintage year—which, in this case, means this past January).
Having just returned from the annual VinItaly wine fair in Verona, where I tasted a boatload of 2014 Brunellos, I can say with confidence that this is a way better vintage than some have made it out to be. It was a difficult year for producers—cool and wet, with sharply reduced Brunello production for many—but the final product was very appealing to me (and to most critics, FWIW). Brunello di Montalcino has continued to get bigger and more alcoholic with each passing year, it seems; the 2014s, by contrast, have tremendous freshness and a brighter, more buoyant feel. If there’s a “Burgundian” side to Sangiovese from Montalcino (and I think there can be), the ’14s are showing it!
La Torre’s ’14 is a tangy and evocative wine now but will really show its stuff with a few more years of aging. In the glass, it’s a deep garnet with hints of red/orange at the rim, and the aromatics are textbook Tuscan melding of red and black cherry, black plum, cedar, tobacco leaf, grill char, saddle leather, a hint of bitter chocolate, and some intriguing sage/rosemary notes. It vibrates with Sangiovese’s brisk acidity and firm, but moderate, tannins. If you’re enjoying a bottle now, decant it about an hour before serving in large Bordeaux stems at 60 degrees. As for aging, I think this will end up being a 10- to 15-year vintage rather than a 20- to 30-year one, which for me is just right (I’m impatient). As a potential pairing for this sleek and sophisticated red, I’m re-publishing a Tuscan burger recipe I posted with our offer of the 2012. This is the “high-low” wine-and-food pairing in full effect! Enjoy!
