The allure of Brunello and the secret of its success

Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino can boast more than 300 grape growers, over 270 wineries, and even more wine bottlers. This is an incredible density for a municipal area of a little fewer than 6,000 inhabitants. A wine lover could spend months visiting them and still be unable to see them all! The town and its population are steeped in history and tradition, but unbelievable as it may seem, only a few wineries have been in existence for more than a century. Why is that? Because Montalcino is an incredible assembly of opposites, a vital oxymoron.

For centuries, Montalcino has straddled an historically important trade route, and this has forged its “land port” mentality – traffic, trade and a mixture of people and ideas have always been at home here, along with the prudence and ruggedness of the countryside. So it is that our community has evolved with strong ties to the land, traditional but also innovative and open-minded. Competition is strong and changeovers are rapid, so making way for younger generations. We produce Italy’s most historic and unchanging wine, and have fought to keep it unaltered, but we do it with the very latest equipment. We are open to every new technology, but are absolutely immovable when it comes to Sangiovese, ageing in wood, in Montalcino, and the flavours of Brunello. The young producers sometimes have German, American or French surnames, but they are proudly “Montalcinese”. Montalcino is a vital oxymoron in continuous evolution, which always welcomes the new while remaining true to itself. And perhaps this is the secret of its allure and its success.