Wine Advisor
Casanova di Neri, Brunello di Montalcino 2006
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Description
Casanova di Neri proudly produces the White Label Brunello since 1978. Their passion and love for the land and their own distinctive Sangiovese joined together to make a wine that stands out for elegance, finesse, high quality and long ageing potential.
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2006 Brunello di Montalcino is fabulous in this vintage. Waves of dark fruit caress the palate as this juicy, delicious wine reveals its considerable charms. The fruit shows lovely weight and richness while maintaining an essentially mid-weight personality. Sweet scents of French oak linger on the round, caressing, impeccable finish. This is an excellent choice for drinking now and over the next decade-plus. The harvest took place from the 2nd to the 5th of October. The wine spent 24 days on the skins, after which it was racked into cask, where it spent 45 months prior to being bottled. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2024. My visit with Giacomo Neri was fascinating. I had the opportunity to taste a number of fabulous wines, but the bottle that left the deepest impression on me was the 1981 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva. Though not explicitly identified as such, the 1981 Riserva was the first wine the estate made from the Cerretalto vineyard. The wine spent a full six years in cask, yet remains fresh and striking today, despite the average (at best) quality of the vintage. Most interesting of all is that the house’s trademark richness was already in place years before Giacomo Neri took over wine making duties from his father. Importer: Dalla Terra, Napa, CA; tel. (707) 259-5405
About the Producer
Casanova di Neri is founded by Giovanni Neri, a 48-year-old grain merchant from the town of Montevarchi in the Arno valley south of Florence. Passionate about wine, Neri had long dreamed of making a great Italian red, and although the long-established wine zone of Chianti Classico was just on his doorstep, it was remote Montalcino and its austere Sangiovese wines that fascinated him. Brunello di Montalcino had achieved DOC (controlled origin) status just four years previously, and there were still only around thirty producers in the whole area, compared to more than 250 today. One rural property on the market had caught Neri’s attention during his frequent forays to Montalcino: Podere Casanova, a working farm of around 200 hectares on the eastern side of town. Wine represented only a small part of the farm’s production at the time, and what was made was sold in bulk, but Neri recognized that thanks to its altitude, aspect and soil composition, the place had the potential to make great Brunellos. In May 1971, he bought Podere Casanova, changed its name to Casanova di Neri, and in consultation with some of Tuscany’s leading winemakers, immediately began work to restore the estate’s existing Sangiovese vines and plant new ones.
