Regular Price $65.00, Brave New World Pricing $39.99 with shipping included on 6 bottles or more

Tenuta Santa Giulia is one of those Brunello-producing estates you have to want to visit on your trip to Montalcino.  You’ll never stumble on it by accident.  And it’s easy to drive right by their entrance as there are no rows of carefully manicured cypress trees, imposing gates or race horse paddocks to identify it.  The nearest place you might recognize is Casanova di Neri, about five minutes or so drive south.  Santa Giulia is, in fact, at the very northernmost boundary of the Montalcino DOCG, an area that, as recently as a decade ago, was considered simply too cold in which to fully ripen Sangiovese in order to make Brunello.  My, times have changed!  Walk up the short drive to the estate and poke your head into the cellar and you’ll see that, these days, Santa Giulia is anything but an irrelevant outpost on your way out of town.  While it is still a small family operation, there is some serious wine being produced here.  And thanks to climate change, the elegant, traditional style of wine made here, is better than ever!  You won’t find any small oak here, and macerations, though shorter than years ago, are still long enough to extract every bit of flavor proprietor Gianluca Terzuoli’s old vines can produce.  These are classically made, soulful Brunellos that emphasize complexity and aromatics over weight and concentration.  The recently-arrived 2019 is a case in point. We loved the floral aspect to its dried cherry, alpine strawberry nose that gives way to darker, more cherry-ish notes with blood orange, cinnamon and seedy spice.  It’s certainly rich and exuberant but it remains nicely in check with just enough restraint to keep you going back to the glass to watch it gradually unfold.  Thoroughly charming now, we think it will age every bit as well as a lot of those far pricier 2019s you’ve already got in the back of the cellar.  We love the Brave New World pricing.  $40 Brunello is an animal we won’t be seeing a lot once those new tariffs start to bite.  Very highly recommended for this summer’s drinking and beyond. 

Vinous Media: The 2019 Brunello di Montalcino opens slowly in the glass, delicate and floral, with hints of cedar and worn leather complementing dusty rose. This is silky in texture and lifted in feel with pretty red berry fruits that flow under an air of violet inner florals. It finishes with crunchy tannins and hints of orange that balance the concentration of primary fruit that lingers. This is a wine of purity and balanced for the cellar. Very nice. 93 points