2011 Caparzo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 750 ml

A WineAccess Wine of the Year Frontrunner

Our 2011 Brunello di Montalcino lineup in N.Y.C. featured wines from nearly 50 estates. The vast majority of the wines tasted were luscious right out of the gate, and will continue to add weight and complexity over the next 5-7 years. A handful were extraordinary, marrying lavish red-fruit plushness with fine dusty-tannin backbone.

As most of the top-rated 2011s will carry price tags equivalent to the record-breaking 2010s, Brunello enthusiasts and collectors should expect little price relief — with one salient exception. On release, the 2011 Caparzo Brunello di Montalcino is one of the most irresistible wines ever to come off this superstar property, earning 94 points from the most respected Italian wine authority on the planet, Antonio Galloni.

At just $32 per bottle today, it’s a frontrunner for the WineAccess Wine of the Year.

On the hillsides above Montalcino, temperatures were much higher than usual from December 2010-March 2011, but there was barely a drop of rain or flake of snow. Budbreak and flowering came very early, and the beginning of summer signaled another departure from the norm. Typically warm and sunny in Montalcino, June was cool and cloudy. In a decision that would dictate the fate of estates in 2011, some growers panicked and began dropping leaves and opening up canopies in the hopes of spiking maturity. At Elisabetta Gnudi Angelini’s Caparzo, the vineyard crew opted to leave canopies intact, a decision that would pay enormous dividends two months later.

Around August 10th, a blast of dry heat blew in from North Africa. In just a few days, fully exposed clusters were scorched and many vineyards suffered from dehydration as nighttime highs hovered in the 80s. The sheltered clusters hanging on the tightly spaced rows at Caparzo shrugged off the hydric stress. As neighbors rushed to pick blistered clusters, Angelini’s crew felt no such urgency and delayed the call to harvest. When that call was finally made, the family’s Sangiovese had reached near-perfect phenolic maturity, making for a 2011 vintage that outpointed the monumental 2010!

The 2011 Caparzo Brunello di Montalcino is brilliant, deep ruby-red. Gorgeous aromas of ripe black cherry, violets, licorice, and mint. Darkly concentrated, supple, and plush, filled with a mouthwatering mix of crushed raspberry and black raspberry preserves, finishing with sumptuous, dusty tannins. Galloni suggests a tasting window of 2016-2031. After we spent three hours with the magnificent 2011, he’ll get no argument from WineAccess.

At $32/bottle, this is not only the most extraordinary bargain of 2011 in Montalcino, it may well be the finest under-$35 bottle in all of Europe. 25 cases are now up for grabs. Shipping included on 4.