SOUTHERN / AMERICAN / PACIFIC WINE & SPIRITS® Pieve Santa Restituta (Gaja) Brunello di Montalcino – 6045225091231

About the Winery:
The story of the Gaja winery can be traced to a singular, founding purpose: to produce original wines with a sense of place which reflect the tradition and culture of those who made it. This philosophy has inspired five generations of impeccable winemaking. It started over 150 years ago when Giovanni Gaja opened a small restaurant in Barbaresco, making wine to complement the food he served. In 1859, he founded the Gaja winery, producing some of the first wine from Piedmont to be bottled and sold outside the region. In 1994, Gaja expanded to new places and acquired its first wine estate in Tuscany, Pieve Santa Restituta in Montalcino.

Tasting Notes:
Deep red. Very clean, opulent aromas, with notes of ripe red fruits evolving into delicate spice and floral perfumes. Powerful and velvety in flavor with a fleshy and sustained finish and refined tannins.

Technical Information

Grape: 100% Sangiovese Grosso.

Vineyards: Santo Pietro, Castagno, Pian dei Cerri.

Fermentation: 4 weeks in stainless-steel vats.

Aging: 12 months in barrique (first-, second-, and third-passage casks), 12 months in botti (large thirty-year-old casks).

Vineyard notes: The designation Rennina (rehn-NEE-nah) first appears in the High Middle Ages and is derived from the late-Roman name of the estate, Fundus Rescianum, denoting a state-owned farm. Since the Gaja family’s acquisition of the historic estate in 1994, three growing sites have been devoted to the cultivation of Sangiovese Grosso grapes for the production of Brunello di Montalcino: Santo Pietro (St. Peter), Castagno (Chestnut Tree), and Pian dei Cerri (Turkish Oak Flats). Here, lime-rich subsoils, southwest exposure, and ventilation arriving from the Tyrrhenian sea to the west deliver well-balanced Brunello di Montalcino, defined by its characteristic red fruit notes, minerality, and polished tannin.

95 Points & Cellar Selection – Wine Enthusiast:
“This drop-dead gorgeous Brunello (from Angelo Gaja’s estate in Montalcino) boasts the beauty and charm of a vineyard that is blossoming with quality and intensity of fruit. You’ll get traditional notes of black licorice and cherry liqueur backed by elegant notes of spice and earth.” (Jul 2010)

95 Points – Stephen Tanzer:
“Good deep red. Powerful yet elegant nose shows more berries and minerals and less oak than the Sugarille; this is downright Musigny-like. Then silky, suave and graceful on the palate, with compelling inner-mouth floral perfume and a wonderfully pliant texture. If anything, this wine is even more intense on the suavely tannic, extremely long finish than in the middle, as its underlying minerality gives it outstanding grip and finesse. This is made from a blend of sites while Sugarille is from a single vineyard, but it was this wine that spun my head around when I tasted the two bottles side by side.” (Jul 2009)

93 Points – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate:
“The 2004 Brunello di Montalcino Rennina is gorgeous in this vintage. Medium in body, the wine offers up attractive scents of underbrush, red cherries, tobacco, leather and licorice, all of which are framed by silky, ripe tannins. The wine reveals tons of purity and class in an understated style. As is often the case, the Rennina is the more feminine of the estate’s Brunellos. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2022. ” -Antonio Galloni (Jun 2009)

92 Points – Wine Spectator:
“Aromas of blackberry and dried mushroom follow through to a full body, with silky, refined tannins and a long aftertaste of bright fruit. Juicy and delicious on the intense finish. This has beautiful intensity. Best from 2010 through 2016. 2,200 cases made.” – JS (2009)