Le Ragnaie Brunello di Montalcino Casanovina Montosoli 2015

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

You can tell a lot about a winemaker from an Instagram profile populated by the highlights of their drinking. Riccardo’s is filled with the kind of wines that makes the heart sing, with hat tips to the likes of Gianfranco Soldera on his passing.

The Brunello Casanovina Montosoli is the most recent release in the Ragnaie family. The Montosoli area of Brunello is well known for produce excellent Brunello.

About La Ragnaie

Fun Fact: La Ragnaie translates to Spider.

Thoughts from Eric Guido

Le Ragnaie I still remember the first time I tasted a Brunello from Le Ragnaie. It was in 2009 at the “Italian Wine Masters” tasting in New York City, where I met Riccardo Campinoti and tasted his 2005 Brunello di Montalcino. I was amazed from the first tilt of the glass. This was nothing like any other wine at the event. At that time, finding such a pure expression of Sangiovese in Montalcino was not easy, yet in front of me was a wine of pure berry, florals, Tuscan spice, and minerals – lots and lots of minerals. It was love at first sight.

Today Le Ragnaie continues to excel with that same approach to purity, yet now they do so with a range of different expressions found throughout Montalcino’s diverse terroir. Located just south of the town of Montalcino, the Le Ragnaie vineyard (the one that started it all) is the highest elevation vineyard in the region with a large portion of old vines, which lends the V.V. a remarkable depth, but also a fresh character even in the warmest vintages. The Fornace vine-yard takes advantage of the region’s southern climate in Castelnuovo dell’Abate, with thirty-year-old vines planted in soils consisting of calcareous marl, galestra, and sandstone. And then, of course, there is the first bottling of the Casanovina Montosoli in 2015 (a vineyard that requires no introduction); here Campinoti’s east-facing parcel sits at 300 meters a.s.l. in soils of true galestro. Frankly, it ranks among the top wines of the vintage.

The classic Brunello is today a blending of different locations, and it’s an overperformer in every way. Vineyard practices are organic, and the winery, although modern and spotless, practices all aging of their Brunello in large Slavonian oak botti. In 2015, Le Ragnaie hits it out of the park!

Where in the World do they Come From?

Vintage 2015

Well, well, well! Every year winemakers (… or their marketing team) around the world tell us it’s the vintage of the decade, maybe even the vintage of the century! Every vintage I make wine I call it the vintage of the year determined to take the P.1.S.S. out of all the marketers!

It’s happened again with the 2015 wines of Brunello. James Suckling Top Italian wine for last your was a Brunello, in fact it was his top wine for the WORLD!  Siro Pacenti Brunello di Montalcino Vecchie Vigne 2015. His top 100 wines were dominated by 35 Brunelli! Virtually all were 2015’s with the exception of a couple of Riservas from 2013.

The Rosso di Montalcinos we saw from 2015 certainly support the vintage being a pretty tasty one.

The message is clear BACK THE TRUCK UP!

James Suckling Thoughts on the 2015 Vintage in Brunello

The 2015 vintage is a historical year for Brunello di Montalcino that nobody should miss. The wines show impressive precision of vivid fruit, fine tannins and freshness in acidity despite their ripeness and richness which makes them some of the most exciting in years.

Winemakers in Montalcino were never better prepared to produce outstanding wines in a year like 2015 with their exactness in their vineyards and cellars from fine-tuned canopy management and crop thinning to optical sorting and soft fermentations. So many wine producers in Montalcino made excellent wines in 2015.

‘Depth of fruit and endless length’

My son Jack and I have tasted 187 2015 Brunellos so far this year and the quality is terrific. We rated about half 95 points or more – classic quality. The wines will be officially available in the market beginning in January 2020. But we wanted to give you a preview of the best Brunellos from the vintage, with some already available on a pre-arrival basis from wine merchants.

‘Balance and harmony’

“The words for the 2015 vintage are density, tannins and freshness,” says Roberto Guerrini, whose family owns Eredi Fuligni. He made the wine of his lifetime in 2015. We rated it 100 points. “The wines are rich, yet they are fresh at the same time. It is a great year.”