2015 Talenti Brunello di Montalcino Piero 750 ml

When it comes to acquiring the elite wines of Brunello di Montalcino—a region that is one-tenth the size of Napa—scarcity can be an even bigger stumbling block than hefty prices. Take the 2015 Talenti Brunello di Montalcino Piero, a voluptuous Tuscan powerhouse hypnotically perfumed with dried rose petals, tar, and sandalwood.

In a lyrical 100-point review, James Suckling compared this best-in-class release to “looking out over a vast orchard of glistening red cherries and red plums, weighing down gnarled, bark-scented trunks.” Even at the sale price of $200, collectors would be all over this bottle, one of the most unforgettable 2015 Tuscans we tasted. In Italy, flawless scores are typically reserved for the world-famous Super Tuscans, already putting the Piero in a class of its own.

Yet only 2,666 total bottles were produced. It is the first cuvée of its kind, hailing from a historic five-acre plot just outside the estate cellar: the personal vineyard of Brunello legend Pierluigi Talenti. 

120 six-packs of this polished, aristocratic Sangiovese have made it to U.S. shores. We scored a fourth of that entire shipment: 30 wood-bound six-packs of one of the grandest Italian wines produced in the vintage. Thanks to a little magic we worked, Wine Access members pay just $165 a bottle for the bottle that Suckling deemed the perfect Brunello di Montalcino. As one Wine Access member summed it up, Talenti is “One of the most fantastic wines I have ever had... Period.”

The Talenti story begins with Pierluigi “Piero” Talenti, for whom this special release is named—among “the most famous figures in the world of Montalcino oenology,” says Robert Parker. A renowned enologist, he was hired by the illustrious Brunello producer Il Poggione and went on to become “one of the leading winemakers in Italy of his age,” declares Vinous’s Antonio Galloni.

While helping craft Il Poggione’s timeless legacy, Piero found an estate after his own heart: some 98 acres just south of Montalcino in the valley of the Orcia river, a remote, rolling place wooded with holm oaks and orchards. In the 1970s he planted the vines in the tiny vineyard that provides the grapes for this wine—100% Sangiovese, showing his traditionalist streak.

Situated on a slope with a perfect south-easterly exposure, galestro clay contributes profound nuance to the low-yielding old vines, which grow 1,345 feet above sea level. In 2015’s hot, dry growing season, Piero’s son Riccardo, Talenti’s current winemaker, coaxed fantastic concentration and a stunning aromatic bouquet from grapes that still maintained a bright streak of acidity.

A celebration of his father’s legacy, this is a 100-point single-vineyard bottling that distills a visionary interpretation of Sangiovese, and promises to be as fresh and sumptuous in ten years as it is today.