Il
Brunello Why do they
call it "brunello"? It isn’t a place or a vineyard and
yet the word names what is probably the best-known Italian wine in the
world. It is a made-up word, a precursor of the modern way of naming
wines that don't have any history to tell. Brunello, on the other hand,
is already over one hundred years old.
It seems that it was the characteristic color (Brunello means dark)
that prompted the name given this red wine by farmers around the town
of Montalcino. The wine was "invented" by Ferruccio Biondi
Santi, who had great wine-making experience inherited from his maternal
grandfather, a wine-making pharmacist. Biondi Santi selected a special
kind of sangiovese on his "Greppo" estate and pressed them,
without adding other varietals, giving rise to what would become a new
Tuscan wine.
For a long time Brunello remained a private matter for the Biondi Santi
family who were perhaps the only ones who had believed right from the
start in this red wine’s potential. Only one other family, the
Colombini, was convinced of the wine’s quality; their 1961 label
identifying their wine as Brunello, complete with the family coat-of-arms,
resulted in a fracture of their friendly relations with the Biondi Santi
family who felt that the "brand name" was their property.
However, from the late 1800s down to the mid-Seventies, there was little
widespread appreciation or distribution of Brunello wine. At the end
of the Seventies the situation turned around and there was a great rush
for it as the domestic market – as well as German, English, Swiss
and American tourists – began to discover this Tuscan red. It has
often been called a wine for those who are patient since it needs to
be aged at least four years, of which three and a half are spent in
oak and chestnut barrels. After this initial phase, the intense ruby
color turns to deep garnet, acquiring a dry, warm and round-bodied taste
characterized by a strong perfume.
