The wines of Il Marroneto are some of the most elegant and age-worthy Brunellos in Montalcino, demonstrating extraordinary breeding and grace.

Giuseppe Mori, a lawyer, bought the small estate just beneath Montalcino’s northern gate in 1974. At first, winemaking was solely a pastime for the family, but in 1994 his son Alessandro, gave up his own law career to make Brunello full-time. The estate’s name derives from a central tower that was once used to dry chestnuts (castagne or ‘marroni’ in Italian), long a source of flour in Italy.

The gregarious Alessandro is a self-proclaimed traditionalist who crafts classic Brunellos in his modest cellar. From his 9 hectares he makes three wines – Rosso di Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino and Brunello di Montalcino ‘Madonna delle Grazie’. The Madonna is a single vineyard bottling (just 5000 bottles in total production), named after the 11th century church just next to the property. In the best years, Alessandro bottles the vineyard separately and this stunning wine has an enticingly floral bouquet in its youth evolving into leather and tobacco with age.

As can be expected from classically crafted Brunellos made from vines at this altitude (400m), Il Marroneto’s wines are characterised by high acidity and mineral tones. Alessandro is adamant about keeping his winemaking as simple as possible and, as such, the wines are aged in large old French and Slavonian oak barrels. As Ian d’Agata explains (Vinous Media), “you’ll be hard-pressed to find more vibrant, precise and pure examples of monovarietal Sangiovese anywhere in Italy.”