Mate Brunello di Montalcino 2011 750 ML

Red plum, leather and toasted oak aromas emerge in the glass. The hearty robust palate offers blackberry jam, dried black cherry, toasted hazelnut and clove framed in tightly packed but polished tannins. Producer Information Ferenc Máté, author of The Hills of Tuscany and A Vineyard in Tuscany, and his wife Candace, a painter, left New York City in 1990 for the Tuscan countryside. In one of the world’s most prestigious wine zones, the seaward slopes of Montalcino, they bought an ancient, abandoned farm with two hills, a canyon with waterfalls and a 13th century friary with a tower and courtyard. Their neighbors were world-renowned wine makers Angelo Gaja and Gianfranco Soldera. Being perfectionists, the Mátés performed a “museum quality” restoration of the friary, then hired Gaja’s agronomist and France’s Pierre Guillaume to select the best varietals and clones in planting their four vineyards of wonderfully varied exposition, elevation and soil composition. Their Syrah and Merlot debued in 2006 from the difficult 2002 vintage. The yields are kept extremely low by three annual green prunings to concentrate flavors. In the Máté vineyards and winery, no effort is spared to yield wines of great refinement, replete with unforgettable flavors.