Cerbaiona· Montalcino

Cerbaiona is a name spoken in lowered voices among people who love Brunello. Two and a half hectares of vines at 420 metres on the eastern hill of Montalcino, a cult since the late 1970s, now in the careful hands of Matthew Fioretti.

The farming is part tractor, part done by hand, and the wine sees four years in large Slavonian botti, no new oak to gloss over what the site gives. What it gives is transparency: floral, structured, unmistakably old-school Montalcino.

This is a tiny production, and demand for it never softens. I take what I am offered and place it with people who understand what they are getting. Do not wait long when it appears.