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Casanova di Neri Cerretalto Brunello di Montalcino 2018

Reviews

98 -Jeb Dunnuck -

The deep garnet-colored 2018 Brunello Di Montalcino Cerretalto is ripe and boasts a sunnier feel, with aromas of baked cherries as well as a dark mineral profile of graphite, toasted peppercorn, and dried lavender. Fleshy and full-bodied, it offers a plush tannin structure, with wonderful depth and richness through its long-lasting finish, and it retains good freshness. This would be a wonderful counterpart for lovers of great Bordeaux. It remains fresh and tinged with classic notes of blood orange and salinity. It’s going to be an outstanding wine to cellar and drink over the coming decades. Bravo.

98 -Falstaff -

97 -James Suckling -

97 -Raffaele Vecchione, WinesCritic.com -

Exciting to say the least is the main profile of this young Brunello, guascone, swaggering, with every reason to be so. There is really everything in the main matrix with very fresh notes of cherries, red plums, currants, cassis, pink grapefruit, guarana and crushed almonds. Lemongrass, lime and vetiver give fresh, progressive notes that progressively grow from the background. Medium-full-bodied, biting and veracious it shows a full-bodied sip, tannins of a slightly edgy nature and a captivating finish with a remarkable Mediterranean flavour. Better since 2026.

96+ -Vinous -

The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto is exotic and perfumed, displaying all of the vibrancy of the vintage through a deep core of dark red fruit, lavender tones and foreign spices. It's lifted and finessed, displaying remarkable balance. Cooling acidity combines with tactile mineral tones and citrus-laced wild berry fruits that swirl throughout. It finishes crunchy and long, leaving crystalline tannins, a blackberry concentration and a tinge of licorice. Despite the conditions of the year, this is a genuinely harmonious Brunello that will excel with cellaring. The 2018 benefitted from an extra week of hang-time leading up to harvest.

96 -Robert Parker's Wine Advocate -

Showing dried blackberry, balsam herb, vapor rub and a hint of charred chili spice, this wine offers an aromatic profile that is very much in line with a vintage that saw cool spring temperatures and a hot summer. The Casanova di Neri 2018 Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto is a wine of depth, dusty tannins and a slightly evolved fruit character. I tasted this 2018 Cerretalto next to the estate's new releases from 2019, and the latter vintage certainly offers more overall clarity and crunch. The Neri family does great work with tannin management, and although there is some chalkiness here, the wine's structure is expertly folded into the fruit concentration. Only 9,700 bottles were made.

95 -Wine Spectator -

Technical Details

Blend 100% Sangiovese
Winemaker Giacomo Neri
Country Italy
Region Tuscany
Appellation Brunello di Montalcino
Vineyard Cerretalto Vineyard
Farming Method Sustainable Practices
Oak small French oak barrels
Fermentation Destemmed, then gravity-fed into temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks for native yeast fermentation and maceration over 3-4 weeks
Aging / Cooperage 60 months; 36 months in oak, followed by 24 months in bottle
Alcohol 13.9%
Production 808 cases

Casanova di Neri Cerretalto Brunello di Montalcino 2018

Name: Casanova di Neri Cerretalto Brunello di Montalcino 2018
Brand: First Bottle
SKU: 1014613
Price: 329.0 USD
Availability: InStock

Sangiovese | Tuscany

JD98, FS98, JS97, RV97, VN96+, WA96, WS95

SPECIAL: Complimentary Ground Shipping!

Sustainable Practices

$550.00

$329.00

750ML

40% OFF RETAIL!

Our adoration of great Brunello di Montalcino knows no bounds – and today’s bottling is pure, epic, divine artistry. It quite possibly does NOT get better than Casanova di Neri in the world of finely raised and crafted Sangiovese. FREE shipping and $200+ in savings? Don’t miss this!

“This would be a wonderful counterpart for lovers of great Bordeaux,” said James Suckling in his enthusiastic 98-point review. A worthy compliment for such a plush, fresh, and ageable wine! The Cerretalto is the flagship single-vineyard Brunello from this massively acclaimed Montalcino estate. It was founded in 1971 by Giovanni Neri and led since 1991 by his son Giacomo, now joined by the third generation. The grapes hail mainly from a vineyard set in a natural amphitheatre alongside the Asso River, where prized white truffles grow, evidence of the purity of the environment. Cerretalto is a wine of scarcity and selectivity, bottled only in exceptional vintages, with just fewer than 10,000 bottles made of the 2018.

The nose is remarkably balanced – giving off wild herbs, black cherries, crushed stones, and a subtle hint of balsamic held by underpinnings of graphite and an almost bloody, iron essence. The mouth delivers so much brightness, elegance, and seductive tension with boundless black and red fruits (plums, raspberries, dried cherries, strawberries galore) alongside shaved almonds, new leather, fresh mint, chili powder, and black pepper. The vintage’s cool spring and hot summer is evident with the brazen fruit character accentuated by stunning, spicy, and savory freshness.

Just remarkable stuff, and certain to cellar for up to the next 20 years or more to come. Only 5 cases to share – so lovers of fine Brunello and other elegant, age-worthy reds, get on this!

FOOD PAIRINGS: A perfectly grilled flank steak with fresh chimichurri can capture and elevate all the brooding and savory notes of this wine while slowly drawing out all the big, bold fruit.

About The Producer

Casanova di Neri was founded in 1971 by Giovanni Neri, when he purchased and restored a 200 hectare working farm on the eastern side of Montalcino. At the time, there were only 30 producers in the new region, which had just received DOC status a few years prior. Giovanni set out to make the next great Italian red, and had his sights set on Brunello – and in 1978, the winery’s first Brunello di Montalcino was produced. In just a few decades, Casanova di Neri would be producing Italian reds to universal acclaim, earning Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year award in 2006. The estate and its seven vineyards across the Montalcino region are family-owned to this day, currently led by the third-generation owners, Giovanni and Gianlorenzo Neri.

$550.00

$329.00

750ML

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