2011 Giodo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 750 ml

“Elegance, elegance, elegance”

Can a wine be a “best-kept secret” even after Wine Spectator tells the whole world it is?

That’s what we couldn’t help but wonder when we saw the Spectator article about the Podere Giodo Brunello di Montalcino, which the magazine calls an “under-the-radar passion project.” The man with the passion is Carlo Ferrini, twice Wine Enthusiast’s Winemaker of the Year and Gambero Rosso’s Enologist of the Year. He is well-known as one of Tuscany’s finest winemakers — so why would he tell the Spectator that he “must be discreet” about one stellar wine?

Ferrini keeps his project under wraps in Tuscany because of his day job as a winemaking consultant. He works with over 30 clients throughout Italy, and among those who pay for his services are the high-profile Tuscan producers Casanova di Neri, Barone Ricasoli, Brancaia, and Talenti. Ferrini knows that these Brunello heavyweights might not appreciate their own consulting winemaker adding yet another competitor to the mix.

Ferrini, who purchased Podere Giodo in 2002 when it was just 25 acres of “woods and wheat,” saw huge potential in the mineral-laced slopes that face southeast, shaded from the hot summer sun. Long a proponent of improving wine through vineyard investment, Ferrini put his money where his mouth was, planting 15 different Sangiovese clones on seven acres.

Ferrini steals away to a corner of Castello Romitorio’s winery to make his wine, and the quality of the fruit allows him follow the gentle course he prefers: short macerations, wild yeast fermentation, and no pump-overs. In Ferrini’s words, he pursues “elegance, elegance, elegance.”

The 2011 Giodo Brunello di Montalcino is just that — elegant, high-toned, with impeccable tension and structure — see our full tasting note below.  

We were fortunate enough to receive an allocation of 200 bottles given that most of the wine is sold to top restaurants in Italy — like the handful of Giodo bottles resting in the cellars of Wine Spectator Grand Award-Winner Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence. But the secret is out. At the best price in the U.S., our paltry allocation will get whisked into our clients’ cellars pronto. $119 per bottle.