2016 Capanna Brunello di Montalcino 750 ml

It was almost two years ago when we practically busted down the door at Benvenuto Brunello, the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino’s annual event, to get at the 2015 Capanna. We felt about this wine like the critics felt about the ‘15 vintage: We couldn’t imagine anything better. 

Then came the ‘16.  

Like the dumbfounded experts who were SURE that the 2015 vintage couldn’t be topped, we are absolutely stunned by Capanna’s 2016. With 96+ points from Jeb Dunnuck’s Italian-wine expert Audrey Frick, it sits in a territory absolutely dominated by high-scoring, triple-digit-priced wines like $180+ bottles from Argiano and Pieve Santa Restituta. Our first taste of the super-seductive 2016 reminded us why we’ve thirsted for another allocation since our last offer of the hard-to-get Brunello. 

Owned by the Cencioni family since 1957, Capanna was one of the first estates to usher in Brunello’s modern era—and this isn’t an exaggeration, since patriarch Giuseppe Cencioni was one of 25 founders of the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino. The estate sits on the hill of Montosoli, perhaps the most famed terroir in all of the Brunello zone, where the vines enjoy Tuscany’s prized galestro soil and a southeasterly exposure ideal for soaking up the bright sun.

Consulting oenologist Paolo Vagaggini has Capanna on a track that’s got the estate “on a real roll of late,” according to Ian d’Agata of Vinous. The wines are fermented on the skins for nearly a month, before spending three years in Slavonian oak casks that range from 1000 to 3200 liters.

What emerges is the kind of beguiling Brunello that outshines its predecessor, and at a price you can’t beat.