A wine made with the Brunello's grape (Sangiovese)...

..but the Brunello di Montalcino is 4 times more expensive. This was in a few words, the review of a Tuscan red on the BBC Good Food Italian magazine by their wine writer.


In case you don't know, 90% of all Tuscan red wines are made with Sangiovese, including the Brunello di Montalcino, and saying that a wine is made with Sangiovese is like saying that 90% of Tuscan reds are made with it. It is like saying that a wine is made with Bordeaux's grapes, but is 10 times cheaper, does this mean anything to a wine drinker or even an expert? No, really.

What makes the Brunello di Montalcino or Bordeaux is not just the grape, that for the records is called Sangiovese grosso, from the same Sangiovese family, but bigger than it, but also the microclimate of the hill in which the town of Montalcino sits and the terroir, and the DOCG law requirements in terms of yield per hectare and ageing.

From a wine writer that writes for the BBC Good Food magazine you would expect more, much more. I do think that sometime we waste our money when buying such wines, whether it is a Brunello di Montalcino or Bordeaux, but this is simply because the wine name does not guarantee its quality. There is no guarantee on the quality of the wine when buying a bottle, there are different information to look for to avoid disappointment, and the one that can offer more reassurance is the producer, but still there are too many variables going into a bottle of wine. Usually, good producers very rarely put their name on bad wines.