2015 Tenuta Luce Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Tuscany 750 ml

“Truly great.” 

James Suckling’s summary leaves little else to be said about the 100-point 2015 Luce della Vite Brunello di Montalcino. It’s an all-time classic born of the glorious partnership between Robert Mondavi and Tuscany’s Marchesi Frescobaldi (owners of Ornellaia and Masseto) in what Vinous calls “easily one of the top eight or ten Brunello vintages of all time.”

We can’t think of a red wine collector who wouldn’t want to tuck a few bottles of this flawless Brunello in their cellar. Unfortunately, given our tiny allocation, a lot of collectors will have to do without. So don’t delay if you want to add this showpiece to your collection.

The lucky ones who do take home the 2015 Luce are in for a nearly opaque garnet, densely aromatic, and full-bodied Brunello—one packed with dried cherry, blackberry compote, sage, pie spice, leather, wild herb, and tilled earth character. With a refined grip and mocha, toast, and herbal notes intertwining on the finish, it delivers a ton of regal Tuscan pleasure right now, and will evolve in the cellar for another two decades. 

After helping launch Napa into the stratosphere of world-class wine regions and partnering with Baron Phillipe de Rothschild to create Opus One, Robert Mondavi turned his attention toward his long-time goal of a project in his family’s native land, Italy. With roots in Tuscany stretching back to the 1300s, the Frescobaldi family was a natural fit for Mondavi’s ambitions. 

It was the Frescobaldi patriarch, Vittorio, who in the middle 1990s saw a kindred spirit in the iconoclastic Robert Mondavi, whose parents had moved from the Marche to America in the early part of the 20th century. And thus, with this meeting of minds, legends were born. In 2004 the Frescobaldi took over full responsibility for the estate, applying the world-class standards that have made their Ornellaia and Masseto wines Tuscan benchmarks.

The Luce della Vite estate is located in the hills of Montalcino, and the site produces “Luce”—a Super Tuscan that Wine Access members have stashed in their cellars with abandon—as well as this Brunello. The 2015 is our first-ever Brunello offer from the estate, and we couldn’t have been luckier, given the 2015 vintage was the one that Vinous said ”industry pros were ready to sound the trumpets, beat the drums and break out the bubbly” over. 

An all-time great vintage, and a flawless wine from one of the most renowned producers in the world. Most will miss this tiny allocation. Act quickly to claim yours.