Wine Spectator recently named its top 100 wines of 2006, and coming out at the top of the heap was an Italian wine, Casanova di Neri's 2001 Tenuta Nuova Brunello di Montalcino. 4,830 cases of this 2001 Brunello were produced.
My wife and I have a particular fondness for Brunello as it was what first hooked us on wine. We had the good fortune to live in Italy for a couple of years shortly after we were married and we would drink Brunello with everything from pizza to gourmet meals. We were in for a rude awakening when we moved back to the States and found out that good Brunello cost $50-70 rather than the $8-15 to which we had become accustomed.
The family-run Casanova di Neri winery consists of 117 vineyard acres in beautiful Montalcino, with the grapes for the estate's top Brunello coming from 37 acres near the town of Castelnovo dell'Abate. The 2001 vintage is by Wine Spectator's reckoning the best Tenuta Nuova ever and rates it a 97-point wine. According to WS's James Suckling it "shows a mind-blowing intensity of blackberry, chocolate an lightly toasted oak". Suckling continues, "It's the texture that really impresses, caressing the palate with ripe, flavorful fruit and velvety tannins".
The magazine cites that the wine can be had for $70 per bottle, though I've not found anyone who still has it in stock. Good hunting!
Recent Comments