Brunello di Montalcino Red Wine

Brunello di Montalcino Red Wine is made from the Sangiovese grape variety. Traditionally, this type of Red Wine goes through an extended period of maceration where color and flavor are extracted from the skins. Following fermentation, the wine is then aged for 3 years or more in large Slovenian oak casks that impart very little oak flavor on the Red Wine and generally produce more of a simple type of wine. Some Brunello winemakers will use small French barrique barrels which impart a more pronounced vanilla oak flavor and add fruitiness to the wine. There is usually a middle ground where the wine is aged in small barrique barrels for a short time and then spends a longer time in the more traditional Slovenia oak casks.

Most producers will separate their Montalcino Red Win production to a "normale" and "riserva" Red Wine bottling. The normale bottles are released 50 months after harvest and the riserva are released a year afterward. The current Red Wine aging requirements were established in 1998 and state that Brunellos Red Wines must be aged in oak for 2 years and at least 4 months in a bottle before release. Winemakers who intentionally break these rules can receive a conviction of commercial fraud and be imprisoned for up to six years.