Castello Banfi Brunello di Montalcino 2020

Castello Banfi is the estate that helped put Brunello di Montalcino on the world map – and their double 93-point 2020 is a warm, ripe, ready-to-drink stunner. For a raucous deal of under $45, it's a serious Brunello at a not-so-serious price. 

Gather round, because Castello Banfi is a great "American dream, Tuscan edition" story. Brothers John and Harry Mariani – a family who'd built a hugely successful wine import business in the U.S. – founded the estate in Montalcino in 1978, then went and did the thing every wine lover secretly fantasizes about… They bought a crumbling 13th-century Tuscan fortress. The castle of Poggio alle Mura, battered by time and WWII, was acquired in 1983 and painstakingly restored, and today it's basically a wine wonderland.

The castle houses a glass museum and a balsamic cellar, and sitting in its shadow are a hotel, two restaurants including the one-Michelin-starred Sala dei Grappoli, and an enoteca. Oh, and they didn't just make wine here – they ran decades of research on Sangiovese clones and shared it with other Montalcino producers, helping spark the renaissance that put Brunello on the world stage. Not bad for a couple of guys from New York.

Although this is a massive estate, it farms like a small one. The property spans 2,830 hectares, but only about a third is planted to vine – the rest is olive groves, plum trees, wheat fields, truffle stands, and forest, giving Banfi one of the highest forest-to-vineyard ratios of any wine estate in Europe. They hold the Equalitas sustainability certification (plus ISO 14001 and SA8000 for their environmental and social practices), and they were early pioneers of temperature-controlled fermentation, using custom vessels that are part stainless steel, part oak – designed to give you fresh fruit AND that rounded oak character in the same wine. 

And, wouldn’t you know, the 2020 is such a fun reflection of all of that. It was a warm, sunny, ripe vintage, which means this Brunello came out plush, generous, and – crucially – ready to drink now rather than making you wait a decade. It's 100% Sangiovese, aged two years in French oak and then rested in bottle before release. Swirl, and its aromas lift out of the glass with violet and dried rose over a whole basket of fruit – ripe cherry, a little baked strawberry, dark plum, and a tart snap of pomegranate. Underneath is the good stuff that makes Sangiovese so much fun – crushed stone, damp earth, a curl of pipe tobacco, grilled herbs, a hint of vanilla, baking spice, and just a whiff of dark chocolate starting to peek through as it opens. This is open-knit, fleshy, generous with fruit – though its fresh acidity and fine, dusty, velvety tannins keep it lifted and give it real grip, all trailing into a long, warm, faintly licorice-edged finish. 

All of this normally runs about $90 a bottle – but ours is comfortably under 45 bucks for a genuinely age-worthy, easy-sipping Brunello. This is a "buy a few" wine… Crack one now, tuck a couple away. Better yet, free shipping when you grab 6 or more.

FOOD PAIRINGS: Order (or make) your favorite sausage and mushroom pizza (torn Castelvetrano olives on top would also be fire). The tomato, fatty, and earthy elements of the pizza hold up excellently next to the boldness of the wine.