Here's an important keepsake from a classic vintage. The Casanova di Neri 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto needs time to open, especially if you plan to drink the wine earlier than is recommended (you're best off waiting five years or more). This powerful wine is packed tight with black fruit, plum and summer ripe cherry. Those dark fruit tones segue to spice, baked clay, balsam herb and gardening soil. The oak is always more apparent in the Cerretalto (which is released one year later, as if it were a Riserva) compared to the Tenuta Nuova. The vineyard used makes a big difference, giving this wine more textural weight and thicker fiber. It's all a question of taste, but if you want power (with 15% alcohol), richness, sensuality and voluptuousness in your Brunello, Cerretalto is the bottle at the end of the rainbow.

Elegant and perfumed nose of dried roses, violets, lemon zest, slate, cherries, aniseed and truffles. Very fine, tight and precise tannins. Medium to full body. I like the floral and saline undertones. So precise and fresh with a tight finish. Crushed stones at the end. Try in 2025, but already attractive to taste and drink.

Wow. Incredible purity and transparency with cherries, bark, mushroom, flower and slate/stone on the nose. Full-bodied yet agile and fresh with a fine tannin structure that runs the length of the wine and goes on forever. The polish, elegance and grace is breathtaking. Power with agility. A revelation for the 2016 vintage in Brunello. Drink in 2024 and onwards but wonderful to taste now.

This red is finely woven, with cherry and black currant fruit shaded by floral, mineral and black pepper aromas and flavors.  Supple and fluid, with superb balance and vibrant acidity driving the fruity aftertaste.  Best from 2025 through 2045.  From Italy.

Here's a treat from Casanova di Neri. Aged in tonneaux for 30 months, the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova is fleshed out and rich with pretty layers of dark fruit, dried blackberry, spice and cured tobacco. There is a point of sour cherry in this vintage that folds into crushed flower, balsam herb, licorice and crushed stone. The bouquet is classic, but the Casanova di Neri magic touch comes through thanks to the wine's balance and pretty intensity. I can't, however, overlook a powerful 15% alcohol content that leaves its mark. This is a production of 67,740 bottles.

From the estate’s Cetine vineyard, located to the southeast of Sant’Angelo in Colle, this Tenuta Nuova bottling has a Mediterranean feel and a sensuous charisma. A relatively early harvest date of 16 September preserved freshness in the grapes. Under a top-note of wood emerges lavender and balsamic herbs. There's ample concentration of ripe red cherry infused with cinnamon and wrapped in malleable tannins. Sapid, tangy acidity buoys the whole. The sleek and sophisticated wood should digest with another year in the bottle.

Casanova di Neri’s ‘white label’ is crafted from the estate’s vineyards in Montalcino’s northeast. The 2017 edition also sees grapes from Cerretalto included, which is usually bottled separately. It emerges slowly, giving scents of violets, yellow broom and mint. The palate is currently a bit angular but the core reaches deep. It hints promisingly at cherry, clay, iron and graphite. An intriguing, intricate expression with noteworthy freshness. Give this a year to flesh out.

Dusty florals, musky cherry and raspberry with hints of mentholated herbs waft up from the 2017 Brunello di Montalcino. This is enveloping and soft, with sweet exotic spices and juicy, vibrant acidity giving way to tart wild berries and rosy inner florals. There’s amazing length, hard red candies and violets, and sweet tannin that goes on and on, creating a somewhat chewy yet also fresh expression. The 2017 benefits from all of the fruit that would usually go into the single-vineyard Cerretalto Brunello, though even with it, production is down by 35%. That said, this is stunning juice.