Why Brunello is “da bomb” WORDS BY Lesley Quinn
FOOD & DRINK - WILL TRAVEL FOR WINE
(Photo: Lesley Quinn)
O
nce upon a time, there was a square-topped hill named Montalcino that looked out on valleys kissed by sunlight. Upon that hill, a grape named after Jove’s blood grew bountiful, and was used to make a wine with tart cherry and strawberry aromas and savoury nuances of thyme and tomato. The wine was drunk almost immediately with pasta and pizza. Then, one day, a man named Clemente Santi was walking through his grandmother’s farm. He noticed that a pocket of “Jove’s Blood,” or “Sangiovese,” appeared to have a thicker skin and darker colour than he was used to seeing in his beloved Sangiovese. Santi took to calling that pocket the “brown one,” or “Brunello,” because of its colour at harvest time. Santi found that he enjoyed how much bolder the wines from the small patch of Brunello were, and he knew he had discovered something special in this steep patch of vines. Thanks to his knowledge of science and chemistry, Santi was able to isolate the grape clone. He was the first to bottle it alone, a feat recognized and awarded at the 1869 World Fair. He also developed longer neutral-barrel aging for these wines, and became a mentor to his grandson Ferruccio, who shortly thereafter released the 1888 Brunello Riserva, a mythic wine of incredible ageability. However, despite the initial awards, Ferruccio’s commitment to quality, and his grandfather’s vision of a single clone of 100 per cent Sangiovese, the wines from Montalcino and the Biondi Santi
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www.pei-living.ca WINTER 2020
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