2015 saw a remarkable, ripe vintage that ended in lush, rich wines with both keen, fresh acidity and high alcohol--Canalicchio di Sopra’s ’15 Brunello embodies its banner vintage with verve, intensity, and depth. Juicy black cherries and sumptuous blackberries dance against a savory backdrop of warm earth, cedar, smoky minerals, and wild herbs, all offset by subtle wildflowers and sweet baking spices. This entrancing Brunello unspools with a creamy, rich mouthfeel as it reveals layer after layer of flavors that are supported on a framework of fine-grained tannins, vibrant acidity, and elegant minerality. The spicy finish lingers in the mouth for minutes! A blend deriving from the estate’s high altitude vineyards, grapes ferment in temperature-controlled vats, and the wine ages for 36 months in barrels, followed by a year in bottle before release. Canalicchio Brunello consistently offers a tremendous price-to-quality ratio, and the 2015 bottling is an outstanding evocation of its banner vintage!
- Country: Italy
- Region: Toscana
- Sub Region/Classification: Brunello di Montalcino
Founded in the sixties by Primo Pacenti, Canalicchio di Sopra remains family-owned. Its establishment represented a substantive risk, as Pacenti, a peasant farmer up until the abolition of the sharecropping system, possessed little in the way of security. The Brunellos of the estate largely reflect the wine’s historical paradigm, a character derived, in part, through 36 months of cask aging, and 1 year in bottle. Although Brunellos are generally regarded as more pronounced in character than the wines of Chianti, such a generic and broad description is more convenient than it is accurate. Distinctions in climate and soil between the northern and southern parts of the Montalcino zone account for important differences. The northern zone, the area relative to Canalicchio, evidences a cooler climate than that of its southern counterpart; this northern terrain receives limited exposure to both the Mediterranean influence of Montalcino and the cooling breezes that the latter’s high altitude affords, resulting in wines that display impressive ripeness and structure.
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