Just Pour: A No-Nonsense Wine Guide to Brunello di Montalcino

North vs. South (and Everything in Between)

A bottle of Brunello is a topographic map of Montalcino in liquid form. If you want to trust me on one thing, that would be that I rarely get to drink a wine more complex than this.

Every time I crack a Brunello open, I finally get what people mean when they say “travelling through the glass” without sounding like total wankers. You get the heat bouncing off Monte Amiata. The dried herbs in the wind from the coast. The quiet muscle of stone and clay. And that constant tension - between old and new, power and grace.

But let’s be clear: Brunello isn’t one thing. It splits - beautifully - into three:

• The lifted, floral clarity of the north

• The broad, sun-drenched swagger of the south

• And the in-betweeners who blend both for balance

This 6000-word Just Pour guide gets into the thick of it. I dig into how Montalcino came to mean what it means today - from Biondi-Santi’s lone wolf obsession to the oak-heavy arms race of the 2000s and the slow return to transparency. I’ll map out communes, soil types, altitudes, and winemaking calls. And we line up ten bottles - from 2000 to 2019 - that show exactly how site, vintage, and mindset twist the dial.

You’ll walk away with a clear sensory compass. So next time you’re holding a glass of beautifully lifted Il Marroneto or a moody, espresso-rich Valdicava - you’ll know exactly why it tastes the way it does. And how to listen.

Let’s pour.