Brunello di Montalcino

In an effort to shed some light on how I study for WSET Diploma Course’s D3 exam, Le Club des Vins is running a series of posts covering wine regions. Today’s topic: Brunello di Montalcino

📍 Location

Brunello di Montalcino is a wine region in Italy, located south of Tuscany about 45 minutes from Montepulciano, the town famous for its Vino Nobile.

In a nutshell

Italy
Warm and dry, but some breezes
Galestro & clay
100% sangiovese

☁️ Climate

Warmer and drier than Chianti Classico, but there are some helpful conditions: cooling breezes from Mediterranean Sea, usually enough rainfall and some (meaning: the best) vineyards are located at higher elevations in the northern part of the DOCG. ⁠⠀ ⠀

🌋 Soils

Two types of soils: galestro in the north and more clay in the south. Galestro is a marl-like soil, also seen in Chianti Classico.

🍇 Grapes & styles

The wines are made from 100% sangiovese, locally known as brunello. Generally speaking, the wines from the north tend to be more aromatic (because of the higher elevation and soil type), the wines from the south are fuller-bodied and usually higher in alcohol. Some producers blend the two to balance the wine. ⁠⠀

💡 Something you didn’t know (did you?)

The grape-growing zone used to be super small, 11 producers and 65 ha in the 60s (today 250 producers 2100 ha). I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ve heard a story about a couple buying land. After the purchase, they found out the land (for the vineyard) wasn’t high enough to grow grapes successfully. What to do? Simple: they raised the land. OMG. ⁠⠀
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Also: did you know Montalcino also makes sweet wine? It’s called Moscadello di Montalcino. ⁠⠀

Your turn now

I always put a new region on instagram first. If you have any additions or comments on a region, please do share. You can drop a comment on instagram or on the website – see below. Your help is much appreciated!