Today’s 2012 was only released into the market at the beginning of 2018. That’s an incredible combination of patience and confidence on the part of its producer, but it’s also the law in the Montalcino region of Tuscany. Wines given the ‘Riserva’ designation have a minimum aging requirement of five years, including (at least) two years in oak barrels and six months in bottles, and are ‘officially’ released on January 1st of the year six years from the vintage year. So, it’s safe to say that Montalcino’s vintners are (a) comfortable holding onto valuable inventory for what would seem like an eternity to most business owners; and (b) confident that the end result is worth the wait.
As evidenced by our repeated, near-automatic offerings of La Torre’s releases over the years, this is one of our most cherished sources of Brunello di Montalcino—not least because of its incomparable value-for-dollar. Today’s 2012 represents the apex of expression of one of the world’s most celebrated red-wine terroirs, and then you look at the price and…well, it just doesn’t make sense. Don’t get me wrong: I’m happy to be able to acquire a wine of this elite level at this price. But, as an Italian wine partisan, I sometimes bristle at the fact that so many lesser wines from around the world cost many multiples more. La Torre only chooses two or three vintages a decade to craft a Riserva bottling, and they make just a single barrel when they do: We grabbed what little we could and now proudly, if jealously, share it with you—just six bottles max per person until our allocation disappears!
[*NOTE: Today's wine is only available as a pre-offer and will be arriving at our temperature-controlled warehouse the week of August 5th]
Producing 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 soils of limestone-infused marl 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 many 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. 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 which evokes a walk in the woods and well-charred steaks on the grill.
La Torre’s Brunello wines toe a more “traditional” line, with wood aging carried out almost exclusively in large, used, Slavonian oak botti. Only after wines have been in barrel for a bit—La Torre’s ‘base’ Brunello spends a total of 42 months in wood, while the Riserva goes for 48—does proprietor Luigi Anania revisit specific lots to determine if any merit the longer aging necessary to be labeled with the Riserva designation. He ended up with a single barrel’s worth of today’s 2012, amounting to just a few hundred cases in total.
The 2012 vintage in Montalcino was a hot one, like 2011, but critics’ reports on ’12 are unanimous on its superiority. It’s as if producers, after releasing many ultra-rich, alcoholic wines in ’11, were better prepared in ’12 to weather the heat and deliver balanced wines. Many observers compare 2012’s wines to the tensile, pitch-perfect 2010s, with perhaps a little more drinkability in their youth.
In comparison to La Torre’s ‘base’ Brunello from ’12—which, of course, we offered previously—this shows more structure, tension, and serious long-term aging potential. Even after all its “pre-aging” at the winery, it’s still a baby, in need of a rough decant and at least an hour open if you’re looking to enjoy a bottle now. In the glass, it’s a deep garnet red with hints of pink and orange at the rim, with powerful, penetrating aromas of red and black cherry, black plum, cedar, tobacco, tar, saddle leather, black pepper, and a hint of bitter chocolate. In its youth, it is still chock-a-block with rich extract and firm tannin, albeit lifted by the brisk acidity that is a Sangiovese hallmark. It is such a powerful, evocative, aristocratic bottle of wine and it’s got a good two decades of graceful evolution ahead of it, and I suspect that it’ll stop people in their tracks in your cellar should they come across your stash. When it comes time to drink one, the classic bistecca alla fiorentina is an obvious choice, but in a previous offer I did a search for “Tuscan burgers” to see what might pop up—only to find dozens of recipes, including the attached. It’s the “high-end red wine” answer to Champagne and fried chicken. Well worth revisiting! Enjoy!
