Wine Advisor
Casanova di Neri, Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova 2015
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Description
Tenuta Nuova is a pioneering and visionary vineyard project emboding the belief and passion of Casanova di Neri. Tenuta Nuova means new property; Tenuta Nuova is a place where nobody planted Sangiovese before; Tenuta Nuova is the will of Casanova di Neri to produce a powerful yet drinkable Brunello with a high ageing potential. The project began with the study of varied local microclimates and their optimal exposures. Through a cautious and passionate research Casanova di Neri has used the most sophisticated scientific investigations to determine the clones, rootstocks, cultivation practices, plant density per hectare and every possible particular to obtain excellent Sangiovese grapes.
Tasting Notes Deep bright red. The usual Tenuta Nuova balsamic aroma blends with pure red fruit in the making. Savory on the palate, almost salty, with the powerful tannins of the vibrant 2015 melting into an incredible depth. Vintage Notes 2015 will be remembered as a truly textbook year. Winter was essentially mild with temperatures within the average and abundant rainfall in January and February. The budding occurred in the second week of April. The second part of April and the entire month of May were rich in rainfall and sunny days; all this led to a regular development of the vegetative cycle, to an excellent accumulation of water in the soil and a regular and prosperous flowering that ended around the end of May. June and July were dry and warm, slightly above average. During the second week of August, precipitations lowered the temperatures and helped the ripening process considerably. August and September continued with significant differences in temperature range between day and night which led to a balance between acidity, tannins and almost perfect grape sugars.
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Monica Larner
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. Tenuta Nuova was bottled in June 2018, and some 70,032 bottles were released.
Reviewed by: Eric Guido
The 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova was quite restrained at first, requiring time in the glass to fully blossom, as subtle red berry fruits slowly gain volume and are then complemented by sweet red florals with hints of exotic spice, peppery herbs, and dusty minerals. On the palate, silky textures flood the senses with rich red berry fruits and sweet herbal tones, leaving hints of savory spice and minerals in their wake. The finish is long and unexpectedly fresh, showing the first hints of round tannins under a top note of sweet cherry, plum and a hint of black tea. There is so much going on here, yet it is all densely wrapped up in its youthful state.
Reviewed by: Ian d'Agata
Bright full red. Redcurrant, red cherry, violet, sweet spices, and orange zest on the scented nose. Not in the quite sweet and fleshy style this bottling is famous for, but suave and very well delineated, with the orange peel note providing inner-palate lift. Closes very clean with excellent length.
Reviewed by: 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.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
This has a beautiful, complex bouquet of dried herbs, white truffles, asphalt, cherry stones, peppercorns, spice and tea leaves. It’s full-bodied with firm, tight and very focused tannins. Bright. Layered. So much going on. I like the salty character. The finish starts slow and is almost endless. Fantastic to taste already, but will just get better.
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.
