Tasting notes
A rich ruby colour with a complex bouquet with echoes of wild berry fruit. The taste is many things - dry, warm, firm, harmonious, delicate and austere, and persistent. Ideal with roasts and strong hard cheeses. Serve warm, 18 °C, best if opened 1 - 2 hours before serving.
Why we recommend this wine
This wine rounds out our fabulous collection of Tuscan Sangiovese wines – a Brunello, a Chianti Classico (click here) and a Montepulciano (click here).
The wine
Caparzo produced its first vintage of Brunello di Montalcino in 1970. The distinguishing characteristic of Caparzo's Brunello di Montalcino is clearly the sources of its Sangiovese - the estate is one of the few in Montalcino that has vineyards in the various geographic areas of the Appellation. The different locations of Caparzo's vineyards allow the estate to bring together all of the characteristics that make Brunello one of the world's most sought after wines. - “Caparzo”, 220 meters above sea level in the northern part has sandy-clayey Pliocene sediments; “La Caduta”, 300 meters above sea level in the southwestern part has loosely packed stony arenaceous schist; “Il Cassero”, 270 meters above sea level in the southern has Pliocene sediments with sandy-stony or scisty-clayey matrix; “San Piero – Caselle,” 250 meters above sea level in the eastern part has sandy-clayey soil.
The grapes are hand-picked. Whole bunches of grapes are unloaded onto a line that is able to separate automatically all the green parts that the destemmer is not able to remove. A selecting belt allows the specialised personnel to carry out another visual control on each berry. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel vats designed by us to support the traditional operations of temperature control, pumpover, délestage, pigeage and aeration by means of a computerised system. During the first two days of the fermentation, special attention is paid to the seeds, which are eliminated if they are not ripe enough. The primary fermentation takes 7 days, at controlled temperatures between 28 and 30 °C. Because of the superb quality of the skins, the wine is kept in contact with them for a further 10/15 days. Malolactic fermentation is spontaneous immediately after racking. The wine is aged in big wood barrels for at least 2 years and in bottle at least 4 months before being released.
The wine estate
Caparzo started at the end of the sixties, when a group of friends, fond of Tuscany and of wine, purchased an old ruin with vineyards at Montalcino. The farm estate was renovated, modernised and new vineyards were planted. There was a falling out (no surprise there) and the Angelini family bought the estate in the late ‘90s and purchased additional vineyards and made further investments in the infrastructure to make it a model winery with fabulous wines.
caparzo.it
Food and wine
A robust red that pairs well with roast and grilled meats, game, braised meat stews and aged hard cheeses. Refer also to our food and wine pairing guide, click here.
Did you know?
Montalcino is a relatively new demarcated wine area. When Caparzo started in 1970 there were only 13 wineries in Montalcino, and this makes Caparzo one of the historic Brunello producers.