Casanova dei Neri, Brunello di Montalcino 2015, Tuscany - 99 Points James Suckling

The purity of fruit in this wine really strikes you with black cherries, combined with sage, lavender and rosemary. Extremely aromatic. Full-bodied, yet so tight and polished with incredible tannin structure that gives the wine an endless mouth feel of caressing tannins, acidity and fruit. There’s a fabulous saltiness and oyster-shell undertone to the fruit. Unique. Drinkable already, but this year there’s the structure to last decades.

Giacomo Neri and his family have crafted a wine that impresses from the first sip forward (especially when the wine is given ample time to open). The Casanova di Neri 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova must be treated with patience, and that patience is returned with many great rewards. Blackberry, plum and summer cherry are slowly folded into lasting flavors of spice, leather and beautiful balsam or medical herb. These are always a distinctive signature of this estate. The aromas flow with seamless transitions, and that fluid and ever-changing nature of the bouquet is what helps to build intensity and staying power. Fruit is harvested from a south- and southeast-facing slope at 250 to 300 meters above sea level. The soils are mixed loosely with crushed rock, allowing access to air and moisture. Indeed, pretty mineral accents appear as the wine takes on more air in the glass. What stands out most in this Brunello is the quality of the bouquet that is rigid and firm, yet not excessively so. You feel the structural texture of the wine as it sits firmly over the palate, yet there is mobility and softness to its many moving parts. I tasted this wine at various intervals over a 24-hour period.
Rating: 98+

Tenuta Nuova has been produced since 1993. It represents Casanova di Neri's 'newer' vineyard of Le Cetine in the southern reaches of Montalcino which boasts stony galestro soils. This manages the warmth and ripeness of the vintage with tremendous sophistication. Balsamic herbs, Mediterranean shrub, juniper and crushed stone overlay layers of focused, luscious currants and black cherries. A bit of an iron fist in a velvet glove - but much more velvet glove than iron fist. Finishes long and invigoratingly salty.

On another level, the flagship 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova shows the warm, sexy style of this vintage beautifully, boasting a translucent ruby/purple color as well as incredible aromatics of ripe cherries, dried rose petals, new leather, spice, and dried herbs. Beautifully complex aromatically, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness as well as a weightless, elegant texture that carries sweet tannins.

Rich, boasting ripe cherry, plum, incense and wild herb aromas and flavors, this red is expressive and charming. All that up-front appeal is matched by dense yet civilized tannins. Fine balance and a lingering aftertaste of fruit, mineral and savory elements bode well for the future. Best from 2022 through 2040.