2013 Podere Sanlorenzo Brunello di Montalcino Bramante Tuscany, Italy 750 ml

Brunello di Montalcino is a singular wine: Grown on rolling hills dotted with Medieval castles and Renaissance villas, it is the pinnacle of Tuscan wines and apex of the Sangiovese grape. 

The stunning, sun-dappled landscape and tannic, cherry-scented variety are fused together over years in barrel and bottle before release, and the culmination of terroir is a joy to drink. In bottles like the 2013 Podere Sanlorenzo Brunello di Montalcino Bramante, freshness and power combine in a silken red without the standard triple-digit price. 

This release wine marries the elements we love about a great Brunello—brooding black cherry, smoke, savory herbs, tar, and crushed rose petals, with a richness of weight counterbalanced by freshness, and a long and lingering finish. 

Podere Sanlorenzo Brunello di Montalcino Bramante not only hails from the same hallowed terroir as Brunello’s legendary Biondi Santi, but also provides a snapshot of a phenomenal year that Wine Enthusiast hails as a “classic vintage” for Brunello. Perfumed and expressive with ripe black cherry, savory herbs, and crushed rose petal, this is a stunning Brunello that would command triple digits if it wore a Biondi Santi label. Released at $60, we have it for $49.00.

Podere San Lorenzo is named after fourth-generation winemaker and owner ’s farmsteading great-great grandfather Lorenzo, who purchased the property’s slightly elevated slice of Montalcino, in the shadow of Mt. Amiata, nearly a century ago. Today, Sanlorenzo’s quartet of estate vineyards cover roughly 11 acres, spread out over rocky galestro soils. Vines have to snake their way deep into the rocky soils in search of nutrients, which in turn, yields densely concentrated Sangiovese grapes that Luciano carefully hand-harvests.

In 2013, a vintage Brunello lovers dream about, the vines yielded an incredible wine. Wine Enthusiast gushed, “If you want to experience the energy, elegance and ageworthy structure ...then 2013 is your vintage.”  The 2013 Bramante cranks these characters to their maximum output producing a sublime expression of ripe, juicy fruit that Vinous calls “suave yet fresh and energetic” and “beautifully focused.” 

The only thing we’re focused on is squeezing at least a case of this into our cellar. We invite you to do the same.