PODERE SANTA MARIA
Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Santa Maria 2017
Tuscany, Italy
Marino’s vineyards are amongst the highest in Montalcino, planted over a combination of sand, limestone and volcanic rock. The fruit for Marino’s Brunello is from a very strict selection made in the vineyard. This wine spends three weeks on skins, then four years resting in old botti before release and it is during this time, Marino believes, that the wine turns from a Sangiovese into a true Brunello. This vintage provided near-perfect growing conditions and in the hands of a master, the wine displays a tightrope balance, with every little detail in place.
Sangiovese
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
Marino Colleoni’s winemaking journey began when he and wife Luisa discovered a patch of old vines buried amongst the landscape on Montalcino’s northern reaches.
They began clearing away the shrubs and to their surprise a rather detailed vineyard lay beneath. After restoring the terraces and replanting damaged vines, they harvested for the first time in 2000. Sitting just below the town at almost five hundred metres above sea level, the vineyards are some of the highest in Montalcino and unusually, face almost entirely north, a real benefit in the age of climate change. Today they farm just over one and half hectares in Montalcino, on sites surrounded by forest planted over a complex mix of sand, limestone and volcanic rock. They also rent a further hectare and a half in Castiglione d’Orcia.
A visionary in the area, Marino has worked organically from the outset and has experimented working without treatments entirely. In the cantina he exercises a considered restraint and great patience, ageing the wines in large oak casks until they are ready and rendering Sangiovese that is uncommonly pure, detailed and fine.
In recent years, Marino has also begun buying grapes from further afield in Grosseto, from which he makes the kind of rustic, easygoing wines he and Luisa like to drink out on their terrace.