2023 Castello Romitorio Brio Toscana 750 ml

Castello Romitorio is one of the handful of Brunello producers we pay attention to every single year.

And every year, Romitorio turns out some of the most compelling Sangiovese in Tuscany.

For most of those wines, you can expect to pay a pretty penny: Their Filo di Seta carries a triple-digit price…and sells out every time we offer it.

But their Brio Toscana is a glorious exception: Young vines that will one go into their spendy Brunellos, vinified to Romitorio’s legendary standards—but made to drink now. It’s a casual Sangiovese made by master craftsmen, and one of the best deals in Tuscany, especially in a great year like ‘23.

Castello Romitorio is located in the hills of Tuscany, interspersed with forest land teeming with wolves, deer, foxes, and wild boars. It likely dates back to Roman times—first it was a temple, then a fortress and monastery, then a shelter for shepherds and their flocks. It was abandoned during World War II and sat in disrepair until the 1980s, when it was rescued from decay by Sandro Chia, one of the most famous artists in Italy, who hired Carlo Ferrini—the winemaker Decanter calls an "Italian Master," with multiple 100-point wines to his name.

Ferrini took carefully selected grapes grown in Castello Romitorio’s microclimate, which is cooler than most of the appellation, and funneled his vast expertise into this delightful, delicious wine. This prized expanse of land, underlaid with galestro, clay, and albarese soils, produces fragrant and dynamic wines. These soils are nutrient-deficient, which forces the vines to struggle and put their muscle entirely into creating complex and concentrated berries. However, there are also deeper reserves of moisture, which allows the vines to thrive in warm vintages like 2023.

The 2023 vintage in Brunello di Montalcino delivered exceptional quality, with producers crafting Sangiovese of remarkable concentration and aromatic complexity. Despite reduced yields from summer heat, meticulous vineyard management resulted in wines displaying impressive structure and depth. Critics are already positioning ‘23 alongside recent acclaimed years like 2019 and 2020 for best-of-the-decade status.