2020 La Serena Brunello di Montalcino 750 ml

When Andrea and Marcello entered the family business in 1988, they started with a single hectare. The Mantengoli family had owned land in Torrenieri since the 1930s, but it took the brothers to turn it into a wine estate. La Serena has since grown to 30 hectares, with ten planted to Sangiovese for Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino.

The address matters. Torrenieri sits in the northeastern corner of Montalcino, at 400 meters above sea level, on calcareous clay that echoes the character of the celebrated Pertimali and Montosoli crus—though slightly less compact, which lends La Serena’s wines brightness and approachability without sacrificing depth. Biondi-Santi and Casanova di Neri work the same hillside.

Organic farming has been at the center of Andrea’s approach from the start. La Serena received official certification in 2013, but the practices—grass cover between rows, composted vine shoots, no chemical herbicides or fertilizers—had been in place for years.

In the cellar, enologist Paolo Caciorgna ages the wine exclusively in large-format French oak casks—20 to 70 hectoliters—having dispensed with barriques entirely since 2009. The result is Brunello that develops in wood without being shaped by it.

Mother Nature blessed Tuscany with near-perfect growing conditions in 2020: warm, sun-drenched days followed the mild spring, while cool nights preserved crucial acidity, and September brought gentle rains at precisely the right moment, allowing the Sangiovese to achieve exceptional phenolic ripeness without sacrificing structure. Robb Report called 2020 one of the best Brunello vintages of the century; Wine Advocate’s Monica Larner was equally emphatic: “I could not be more pleased with 2020 Brunello di Montalcino.”

At La Serena, the vintage played out especially well. Years of organic farming had driven root systems deep into the calcareous subsoil, and grass cover between the rows retained morning dew through the warmest stretches of summer—the kind of resilience that can’t be manufactured.

On the nose, dark cherry, camphor, dried red roses, and tobacco; on the palate, dark spice, sweet tobacco, and herb, anchored by the estate’s characteristic acidity and firm, resolved tannins.