Bold Brunello

By Alice Feiring

Sometimes you have to travel to a wine's home in order to understand its character. Last fall, after the harvest in Italy, I stood atop the ruined fortress that looms over the ancient town of Montalcino, the birthplace of Brunello, just 25 miles southeast of Siena. From the fortress, I devoured the panoramic view of the Tuscan countryside. In the distance, the grapevine leaves were as colorful as New England's best in October. Clumps of olive trees and upright cypresses were shadowed by the brooding Mount Amiata. The whole ambiance was distilled in the Brunello I was drinking. Seeing my red-wine-stained teeth, a friend handed me some freshly plucked sage leaves and instructed me to rub my teeth clean with them. "Old custom," he said. It worked!

Brunello, made from the Sangiovese Grosso grape, is often referred to as Chianti on hormones--it's bigger, bolder and pricier. The Biondi-Santi winery in Montalcino is credited with making the first Brunello around 1888, and the firm still produces a glorious version. But it took two winemaking brothers from Long Island, N.Y., John and Harry Mariani, to raise the wine to fame. In the late 1970s, the Marianis bought a medieval castle in the Montalcino area, Castello Banfi, started growing Sangiovese Grasso grapes on some of the surrounding 7,100 acres and began making their own Brunello. Thanks to their efforts, the quality and reputation of the local wine whooshed upward. Brunello became one of the top Italian wines, and Americans and Italians took notice.

This year, so many people asked me for Brunello recommendations that I thought a tasting with friends around my kitchen table was in order. After all, at prices like these--bottles range from $30 to $120, with most hovering around $60--we want to minimize mistakes.

I covered the labels on 12 bottles to make sure we tasted without prejudice. During the tasting, two wine styles emerged. One was marked by a bright red color, had flavors and aromas of toasted cherry vanilla and was kind of clunky in the mouth. While this modern style of Brunello is flashier and gets more of the attention, all my friends preferred the more traditional style. Its color was brown tinged and its texture more supple. Flavor and aroma observations that we shouted out included black olive, summer cherry, cedar and forest honey, but to me a wonderful Brunello will always summon up plums and rosewater baking in the sun. The wines paired brilliantly with my white beans and sage.

Speaking of sage, I encouraged my friends to pick a few fresh sage leaves to clean the red-wine residue from their teeth. If they couldn't travel to Montalcino to soak in the wine culture, the least I could do was to bring a little Montalcino to them.

FOUR TO SAVOR

Brunellos aren't cheap, but their glories can be worth a splurge. Some of the best from our taste test:

o 2000 Biondi-Santi Rosso di Montalcino, $60 Intense perfume of crushed, dried roses and sunbaked plum

o 2000 Biondi-Santi Brunello di Montalcino, $100 Very pretty, marked by bittersweet chocolate, black olive and roses

o 1999 Mastrojanni Brunello di Montalcino, $50 Delicious. Touches of cherry and Earl Grey tea and tangy acidity. Look for the same maker's Schiena d'Asino, a single-vineyard version, gorgeous at $80

o 1999 Castello Banfi, $60 While this is a more modern style than the other three, it's a sure crowd pleaser with its smoky cherry and little-red-berry flavors