BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO DOCG

The Brunello di Montalcino DOCG of Sasso di Sole is the wine through which the Terzuoli family's conviction — that respect for the land is the only way to obtain a good wine — finds its fullest expression. It is a wine produced with slow alcoholic fermentation using indigenous yeasts for more than twenty days on the skins, followed by malolactic fermentation in steel tanks, and then the extended rest in large Slavonian oak barrels of thirty-five and fifty hectolitres that the traditional Montalcino philosophy prescribes.

The choice of indigenous yeasts — the naturally present yeast population of the estate's vineyards rather than commercially selected strains — is a commitment of genuine conviction. Indigenous yeasts are unpredictable, demanding, and irreplaceable: they carry in their genetic makeup the specific character of the vineyard they inhabit, and they impart to the wine a complexity and a territorial specificity that selected yeasts, however reliable, cannot replicate. For a wine of this ambition, the commitment is both appropriate and essential.

The large Slavonian oak barrels of thirty-five and fifty hectolitres are chosen specifically to preserve the integrity of the fruit while giving the wines refinement and elegance without the intrusion of heavy wood influence. This is the traditional philosophy of Montalcino at its most thoughtful: the understanding that Sangiovese Grosso is a grape of sufficient character and sufficient structure to develop in large wood over years without requiring the flavour contribution of new, small barriques.

The result is a full expression of quality and elegance — a traditional Brunello with an intense ruby red colour and varietal and spicy aromas, with excellent freshness and fine intensity. In the mouth it is enveloping and silky, with sensations of softness that enhance its breadth. James Suckling awarded it 94 points.

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