Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto DOCG 2016

In 2007, Wine Spectator awarded the 2001 Cerretalto a perfect 100 points — the first Italian wine ever to receive that score — anchoring the reputation of a single plot that Giacomo Neri had long treated as the estate's most demanding and most revealing site. The Cerretalto vineyard sits at 270–300 m a.s.l. in a natural amphitheatre along the Asso torrent in Torrenieri, east-facing, with galestro marl laced with alluvial stone, eroded rock, and deposits rich in iron, magnesium, and plinthites. That mineral-dense subsoil, combined with the widest diurnal temperature range of any Casanova di Neri site, drives phenolic precision and structural tension rather than sheer volume. White truffles grow on-site — a marker of the soil's complexity. Fermentation is spontaneous, in oak, with no added yeasts; maceration runs approximately 23–24 days in open-topped conical vats via a fully gravity-fed, pump-free cellar. Aging: 30 months in tonneaux at 20% new oak, followed by 30 months in bottle — Cerretalto is released a full year after its stablemates. The 100% Sangiovese Grosso planted here is the estate's own proprietary clone, bred from this very vineyard and propagated across all seven sites. The 2016 vintage is widely regarded as one of Montalcino's finest modern harvests, delivering concentration and structural precision in equal measure; drinking window extends comfortably to 2045+.