On Sale Casanova Di Neri Brunello Di Montalcino Giovanni Neri 2020 Best Choice [37zEnisN]

978 points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, November 2024

The Casanova di Neri 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Giovanni Neri is a lifted and punchy wine with great vertical delivery of aromas. It ferments with 10% to 15% whole-cluster fruit. Giovanni and Gianlorenzo Neri noticed brown stems and perfumed aromas, and these qualities gave them the inspiration to use the stems. Cherry and red fruit aromas are followed by pepper, wild spice, sweet earth and dusty pencil shaving. There are hints of saddle leather on the one hand and pressed rosemary herb on the other. At the very end, there is a hint of something that tastes like a crunchy breakfast bacon strip. I do love the intensity and the energy of this wine. Only 8,600 bottles were created. Fruit comes from a seven-hectare parcel in the Sesti area (along the dirt road that goes from Castelnuovo dell'Abate to Sant'Angelo in Colle) that was purchased in 2017. The vines were planted in the 1970s. The wine ages in tonneaux for 30 months, and the tannins are beautifully integrated.

In 2020, the Neri family did not make its flagship wine, Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto. Grapes for that wine were directed to the white-label 2020 Brunello di Montalcino instead. It's been exciting to watch an evolution of style underway at this winery that comes with a new generation now fully involved in the cellar. Giacomo Neri's winemaking style focused on more concentration with pump-overs and punch-downs, but sons Giovanni and Gianlorenzo have tweaked the house style to focus on less extraction and more fruit balance instead. They are experimenting with softer cap management, bigger woods and some whole-cluster fermentation (used partially in the Brunello di Montalcino Giovanni Neri, for example). These are very exciting times for the Casanova di Neri brand.

 - Monica Larner