It works, except when I have to open my eyes to look at tasting notes or get up for another sweater. The climate is warmer and drier here than in nearby Chianti, with good ventilation and cool flavour-enhancing nights courtesy of the surrounding open countryside. Enthusiastic descriptions of Sangiovese-based wines go back to 1831. Nice inventing there. The founding firm led the world to the D.O.C.G. wine, with a resulting quintupling of vineyard area and a proliferation of producers in Montalcino.
Tannins are firm and acids abundant.
These wines can sing of their origins while offering fruited pleasure in their youth, but will improve for 10 years, much longer in good vintages. It's like Riserva-level Chianti, with more firmness and intensity when mature. From clonal selection through vinification and four years aging in Slavonian oak, this wine gets spectacular care with minimal intervention. The result is a restrained wine which takes a few years to show its stuff. It is consciously intended to last a century, a little like long-aged top Gran Riserva Riojas.