I was tasting a wonderful wine recently at my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source and they asked me if I had ever had it, I said that I have had wine from the region, but I didn’t think that I had tasted the wine.  Of course, the winery kept gnawing at me, a sense of déjà vu.  After writing for almost ten years, and imbibing for fifty, I don’t always remember every wine immediately, I should of, at least checked my blog. 

I was tasting Mastrojanni Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2015 and it is pure Sangiovese or locally known as Brunello.  A lawyer, Gabriele Mastrojanni created the winery in 1975 when he bought the San Pio and Loreto estates and planted vines where it was meadows and woods. There are ninety-six hectares of land, with thirty-three hectares planted in vines, but only seventeen hectares qualify to be Brunello di Montalcino.  Their cellar is built partially into a hillside and it has cement tanks and barrels for long term storage.  Since 2008, they are part of Gruppo Illy, the coffee people, and Francesco Illy has been an owner-winemaker at a neighboring estate since 1997; he has kept the same original winemaking team at Mastrojanni since the purchase. This wine spent thirty-six months in oak and an additional six months in the bottle, before distribution.  The wine is a pretty ruby-garnet red with a nose of dark fruit and spices, a beautiful chewy wine with tannins that need to be mellowed out with some additional aging and a nice long finish. 

I found my article about my déjà vu moment, that I wrote about back in 2013.  Just before our guests arrived, I went to choose a wine for the dinner.  I found a Brunello di Montalcino ‘Loreto’ 1991 by Mastrojanni and I also looked at a second wine, just in case, that I had kept this wine too long.   I removed the foil capsule and everything looked good, and then I used my best corkscrew, which always seems to get a good bite on the cork.  The cork once removed was sound and had no bad odors, so far so good.   I poured just a tasting amount in my wine glass, on a side table and I was amazed at how rich the color still was, as there was no lightening or brownish tinge to be seen.  Since this wine is made from the Brunello (Little Brown One) grape it has since been proven to actually be the Sangiovese varietal that is famous for the Tuscan region where this wine hails from.  When I took the first taste, I was amazed at how smooth this wine had matured; the tannins had mellowed out so gracefully that I even had to share that first taste with my Bride.  I was going to decant the wine, but our company arrived, so I just let it breathe on the side table, away from all the other activities.  When it came to pour the wine along with our entrée, it was just awesome and I am sorry that I did not have another bottle of this wine left in my cellar.  I am not sure that our guests were as amazed by the wine as my Bride and I were, but I am still admiring its quality mentally.