2015 Caprili Brunello di Montalcino Tuscany 750 ml

It’s extraordinarily easy to miss the left-hand turn to Caprili while careening along the Strada Provinciale 117 in the Tuscan town of Montalcino. We might wax too poetic about these hillside towns in Italy, but how can we not? Imagine the grandest view of the Catskills in upstate New York, only dotted with ancient cypress trees and entire swaths of vineyards, which produce some of the greatest red wines on planet earth. Yeah, so, we missed the turn. 

Sourced from gently sloping hills that cascade toward two rivers, Caprili’s Brunellos have earned them the title “Most Valuable Player of the Year” by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. And we're glad that we finally got our hands on those MVPs. We last offered the estate’s 2017 Rosso, which became an instant hit with Wine Access fans, who rated it 4.6 out of 5 stars.

Like critic James Suckling (who rated it 95 points), we were floored by the 2015 Caprili Brunello di Montalcino, which is poised to surpass it’s charming and delicious baby-brother Rosso in the estimation of Wine Access members. Highly complex, with 5-star heady earthy aromas, savory spices, black cherry, cedar, dried roses, and tobacco plus the telltale Brunello grip, the 2015 will thrill  Brunello lovers, and anyone who finds joy in glassfuls of classically-styled red wines.

We kicked up a bit of dust making an abrupt U-turn after realizing we passed the turn to Caprili, an old, traditional producer in Brunello di Montalcino.

Today, the winery is run by Giacomo Bartolommei, who has been a dynamo, improving all aspects from farming to production, raising the bar of quality for this historic property. On our visit, Bartolommei guided us through several rows of his organically farmed estate vineyards, which mostly surround the Caprili estate and slope downward from 1,000 to 700 feet above sea level.

The 2015 Brunello, tasted with Bartolommei, is blended together with grapes from three sites—Ceppo Nero, Pino, and Quadrucci (all-told just 10 acres of vines). Leading us into the cool 55-year-old cellar, we learned that once the grapes are harvested, Giacomo does his best to “do nothing,” other than the oft-repeated winemaker favorite phrase of not “messing it up.” Native-yeast fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks over a week, followed by 15-20 days of maceration before aging in large neutral casks for three years. 

Tuscan fanatics may be surprised to learn that in 1965, Caprili split away from Angelo Gaja’s Pieve Santa Restituta estate (which has earned many 95-97-point Parker scores for its $90+ Brunello) and is also adjacent to the estate of the late Gianfranco Soldera—another 95-98-point high scoring Parker favorite, which goes for a cool $645 a bottle in the states. Interesting neighbors!

Caprili itself, in addition to being Parker’s MVP, has charmed every other major wine critic on the scene, with James Suckling proclaiming it is “dialed-in and elegant throughout,” and Wine Enthusiast likewise praising the estate’s reds as “structured and enveloping.” In other words, this is your $50 ticket to Tuscany, where triple-digit wines come from priceless views, and it’s oh-so-easy to get lost in the beauty of it all, even if the GPS keeps telling you to “giri a sinistra” (turn left).