Il Marroneto Brunello di Montalcino 2016

Il Marroneto sits beside the thirteenth-century church of the Madonna delle Grazie on Montalcino's north slope, where the Mori family planted its first vines in the mid-1970s, and under Alessandro Mori it has become one of the most revered cellars in traditionalist Brunello. The sandy marine soils here, the sabbione di mare, lie at 430 meters, where cool northern air stretches the ripening season and preserves perfume. Mori bends to no fashion: fermentation on native yeasts in large neutral oak, press wine kept alongside the free-run juice, then 41 months in 2,500 liter Allier casks and nearly a year in bottle before release. The result is built on finesse rather than weight, and these rank among the longest-lived wines of the appellation. In the monumental 2016 vintage, Brunello of the very first rank.