Since founding his winery in 1971, no one has made as great a case for modernized Brunello as Giacomo Neri. For a historic wine with roots in the 16th century, the last decades were turbulent for Brunello. Demand pushed producers to plant heavily in less suitable subzones, new oak use was getting out of control, and by 2003, even top producers were caught passing off Merlot in their wines. Not distracted by the noise, Neri spent those years honing his meticulous and bold winemaking. He's known for his polished style, decorating Sangiovese's rustic sour cherry with intoxicatingly fragrant notes of vanilla and crushed clove. While he's no stranger to oak, his style is not the one size fits all Brunello au barrique approach seen elsewhere in Montalcino. Neri's weapon of choice is the 500L tonneaux, with toast level and timing matched to the structure of the fruit.
His entry-level "White Label" spends 43 months in wood, adding opulence to the tight acid core of fruit from Neri's coolest vineyards. Tenuta Nuova and Cerretalto both dial back the barrel ageing to three years, letting each single vineyard expression shine through. Tenuta Nuova comes from rocky galestro soil south of Montalcino. It's structured and supremely age-worthy, highlighting Sanigovese' savory herbal streak. I've had bottles dating back to the early 1990s that were meditative and reached the heights of complexity only seen by the best Sangiovese. The Cerretalto is sourced from old vines in an amphitheater along the Asso river. The slope's extra sunlight compensates for the site's cool nights, giving ripe tannins with electric acid and distinctively high-toned floral notes. The wine is one Brunello's most massive expressions. Monica Larner wrote the following in her review of the 2016 vintage, which I agree with, "It's all a question of taste, but if you want power (with 15% alcohol), richness, sensuality, and voluptuousness in your Brunello, Cerretalto is the bottle at the end of the rainbiw." `James Suckling is already calling 2015 & 2016 the "best vintages ever" in Montalcino and gave the 2015 and 2016 Cerretalto aback-to-back perfect scores. These are some of the most beautiful and hedonistically licentious wines we've seen out of Montalcino, must-tries for any Italian wine lover who still loves a bit of power.
94 Points Monica Larner of Wine Advocate "The Neri family has created a classic expression of Sangiovese from a classic vintage, while remaining faithful to the house style. In a nutshell, these wines always tend to offer dark plum, clove and fig confit over the tiny berry and blue flower aromas you get from the traditionalists. That said, this Brunello needs ample time to open, and I suggest you splash it into the decanter. The Casanova di Neri 2015 Brunello di Montalcino (this is the one with the white label) stays safely within your expectation of the vintage with its variety-driven aromas of wild berry, licorice, blue flower and balsam herb. This wine sees fruit sourced from a vineyard on the northeast side of Montalcino, with Galestro soils ranging from 330 to 480 meters above sea level. Some 95,376 bottles were made. It was bottled in June 2019, and it hit the market in January 2020. You might want more from the aromatics (while you wait for the bouquet to come around), but this wine goes gangbusters in terms of mid-palate and overall texture."
