Altesino Brunello di Montalcino 2012

Meet the bottle that is at the nexus of value, pedigree and outright deliciousness.

Brunello

Brunello has to be made from 100-percent sangiovese grosso (a clone considered more elegant than sangiovese picollo, which is more common in Chianti).

DOCG

This is the Italian Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita, a list of 74 wines recognized as having geographical significance. Every bottle has a numbered government seal across it to prevent manipulation.

Location

Brunello is in southern Tuscany (its famous neighour, Chianti, is from the northern part of Tuscany).

Quantity

Often prestige wines (especially those with sexy high point scores), if they arrive here at all, arrive in tiny quantities. There are 500 cases of this wine available and it’s in 45 stores.

Scores

While we don’t care about scores (right? right?), this wine received a score of 96 points from Wine Spectator (which named it #11 on their famed Top 100 of 2017), besting many more expensive labels (and it also got 94 points from Wine Enthusiast).

Cost

This bottle retails for $57 at the BCLDB, which makes it one of the cheapest brunellos in B.C. The regular price at U.S. mega-retailer BevMo is $75 U.S. (or $96 Canadian), meaning it’s a rare deal in B.C.

Vintage

Oddly, 2012 is the current release of this wine. By law, Brunello has to be aged at least two years in oak and four months in bottle before it can be sold. This producer goes further with a four-year aging program.