Wine Advisor
Pian dell'Orino, Brunello di Montalcino Vigneti del Versante 2012
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Monica Larner
This wine exudes elegant power and linear finesse. The 2012 Brunello di Montalcino Vigneti del Versante has not yet been released. In fact, it will hit the market after the younger 2013 vintage. We should expect to see it in the fall of 2018. The bouquet offers so much care and detailing that all comes together like a massive ceiling fresco in an Italian Renaissance palace. The bouquet allows for a big picture perspective with wild cherry, rose hip, dried ginger, rosemary and spice. The mouthfeel is firm, almost crunchy. Swirl the glass a few times and savory tones of moist earth and exotic tea begin to appear. This is a beautiful wine worth waiting for.
Reviewed by: Ian D'Agata
The 2012 Brunello di Montalcino Vigneti del Versante is a brilliant ruby color in the glass, with a deep and rich bouquet that mixes autumnal spice with sweet tobacco and sugar-dusted plums. It’s seamlessly silky, enveloping the palate in opulent strawberry and raspberry fruit that gain a grippy tension as saline-mineral tones saturate. Its tannins have rounded over the last ten years, making for a lightly structured yet completely satisfying and approachable Brunello. A vivid note of hard red candies lingers on. Always humble, Jan Hendrik Erbach admits that he may have had a better experience with a shorter maceration (five weeks in this case), yet he strives to capture as much character from the skins as possible. The 2012 was all refined in a new 40-hectoliter cask. You can feel the warmth of the year, but the balance is on point, aided by pronounced acidity.
About the Producer
For some time now, we've wondered what it means to talk about "quality." The answers we give ourselves today are made up of attention and research, awareness that is translated into action in an evolving process. In our seven vineyards - Pian dell'Orino, Pian Bassolino, Scopeta, Cancello Rosso, del Moro and, from March 2020, Pian dell'Oro and Olivetello - we only grow Sangiovese; Thanks to the study of the zoning of the company, we maintain the expressive authenticity of the land in our wines, respecting the unique characteristics of each vintage; Our work is closely related to the observation of energy influences transmitted mainly through the phases of the moon and respects the natural rhythms that influence the life processes of each plant; Uniqueness is outlined in the complexity: the maintenance of forests and the seeding of different types of grasses, promoting biodiversity, maintaining humus content and improving soil structure, while creating the perfect habitat for insects, reptiles and many other organisms; All the products and preparations sprinkled on the vineyards come from nature and therefore from life itself; All work on the vines, including picking, is done strictly by hand with extreme meticulousness and focus; The selection of grapes allows us to bring only the highest quality grapes to the cellar; The fermentation is slow and spontaneous, induced only by native yeasts; We do not use invasive techniques during fermentation and aging; We carefully follow the improvements made in barrels from 10 to 60 hl and perform precise sensory checks; We minimize the use of sulphur to make the wine completely digestible; We keep the wine alive by removing any filtering; We are certified by ICEA and AgriBio; The maximum yield from our vineyards is one bottle per vine.
