Casanova di Neri
Cerretalto
Brunello di Montalcino
2016

The producer

Grain-merchant, Giovanni Neri, founded Casanova di Neri in 1971 at the 200 ha Podere Casanova on the eastern side of the region. The first Brunello di Montalcino was produced in 1978. In 1991, son Giacomo takes over the running of the winery. In 1993, the first harvest of Sangiovese fruit from the Le Cetine vineyard in southern Montalcino is harvested – and in 1998 the 1993 single vineyard Brunello ‘Tenuta Nuova’ (produced from fruit from Le Cetine vineyard) is released to rave reviews.

Years later, in 2006, Wine Spectator awards ‘Tenuta Nuova’ its “Wine of the Year” award. Casanova di Neri is widely known as a more international or modern style of Brunello di Montalcino, characterised by concentrated luscious dark fruit, fine tannins and succulent velvety oak complexity. We will be offering three of Casanova di Neri’s outstanding wines.

The wine

Cerretalto is derived mainly from 50-year-old Sangiovese vines growing in a vineyard situated in a natural amphitheatre along the Asso river, in the eastern part of Montalcino. Fermentation and maceration take place in cone-shaped open fermenters for 32 days and is followed by ageing for 36 months in oak barrels, and finally 18-24 months in bottle. A complex and richly expressive Brunello with mineral red cherry fruit and an herbaceous menthol and liquorice vibrant freshness and velvety structure.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.