For Brunello of harmony and grace to match its depth and richness, 2013 has few rivals. The year’s long growing season was reminiscent of the classic harvests of the 1970s and 1980s, bringing the year’s fruit to peaks of highly nuanced, perfumed finesse. 

This was especially true in the famed Montosoli cru, whose situation and stony galestro soil produce, in Ian D’Agata’s words, “wines of utmost elegance.” And perhaps the finest Montosoli parcel of all belongs to one of Brunello’s great classicists, Pertimali’s Livio Sassetti. 

In 2013, Sassetti’s classic methods played to the vineyard’s strengths, producing a Brunello of unquestioned depth and elegance. And spurred on by James Suckling’s 98-point review, the market for the wine surged.  

Steeped in History
Four generations of Sassettis have tended vines in Montalcino back to the 19th century, and the oldest bottle in their collection is from 1915, making the family among the region’s half dozen pioneering producers. 

It was third-generation vignaiolo Livio Sassetti who established the lofty reputation the estate enjoys today. Greatly respected by his fellow growers, Livio was one of the founders of the Consorzio del Brunello di Montalcino in 1967, the same year Montalcino attained official appellation status.

Through the 1970s, Livio worked the historic Patrizio estate in Sant’Angelo in Colle that his family had owned since the 1800s. But he'd long had his eye on Montosoli, perhaps the appellation’s finest terroir. And so in 1982 he acquired the vaunted Podere Pertimali in the heart of the Montosoli hill. 

Armed with the collective traditional wisdom of his forebears and his own lengthy experience, Livio completely captured the Pertimali terroir’s uncanny harmony of structured power and nuanced finesse. That prompted Robert Parker to write: “if I had only one Brunello di Montalcino to drink, it would have to be Pertimali.”

Today
Livio’s son Lorenzo is now in charge, and he works just as his father did, down to tending the vines in accordance with lunar cycles. The vineyard has always been farmed organically, with perfectionist attention to detail, producing gloriously ripe, complex Brunello fruit. 

The grapes are gently fermented and extracted at cool temperatures for two weeks in stainless steel, after which they are racked to neutral Slavonian oak botti for a classically long three years of aging. 

2013’s throwback growing season was ideally suited to both the estate’s terroir and this approach, providing Sassetti with wonderfully nuanced and concentrated fruit. And Lorenzo made the most of it, in a model expression of grape and site.

Here it is: a classic Brunello from one of Montalcino’s greatest terroirs and a vintage tailor-made for its graceful, nuanced style. Don’t miss it at our low price.