Why, oh, why didn’t I buy two bottles? I took a 2003 Sesti Brunello di Montalcino for a test run (in preparation for our all-sangiovese tasting tonight at the Ladies Tasting Society), loved every drop, and then didn’t have enough time to zip back to Berkeley to get another. If I had one to bring tonight to the LTS, I think my bottle would have come out on top — or maybe not, since the 2003 Sesti is not a bruiser of a Brunello, and more delicate vintages tend to get muscled out of blind tastings by the big guys.

Too bad, because the Sesti is a beautiful example of a Brunello. For my complete reaction, click here for .

Brunello, which is made painstakingly in relatively small quantities (hence the high prices) from a sangiovese clone called brunello, the best of it grown on the hillsides around a small hilltop village in southern Tuscany named Montalcino. After I poured my first sample, my glass was filled with a wondrous bouquet of violets, dried cherries, and new leather. It was so distinct, and the flower aromas so prominent, I said to myself, “I know I’ll be able to pick this baby out of a line-up!” (That is, if I had any left.) I noticed that the wine was not darkly colored, so what a surprise when I tasted it: the Sesti is an undeniably light-bodied red, with a fresh mouthfeel, but the flavors are so vivid and intense it tastes like a wine with twice the weight and concentration. Red and black cherries, lots of leather notes, savory herbs, plus wild berry compote on the edges. This is one of the most complex wines, with one of the longest, cleanest finishes, I’ve tasted in a long time. Worth every penny of the $58 I paid for it.

One last note on the Sesti and its place in “Brunellogate“: recently the guys (I’m sure it’s guys) who are in charge of enforcing Italy’s wine laws impounded hundreds of thousands of bottles of the 2003 vintage of Brunello di Montalcino, claiming that the wineries had blended in illicit grapes like cabernet and merlot. (By appellation rules, Brunello must be 100 percent sangiovese.) The wine police went after big names including Frescobaldi, Antinori, and Argiano. But not Castello di Argiano, which is the name of Giuseppi Sesti’s estate. (The name appears on the bottle just to confuse us.) No, no, no adulteration for Giuseppi. He farms his grapes using strict biodynamic principles and aims to use 100 percent sangiovese like a clear lens through which his vineyard can express its beauty and individuality. He is, in short, a purist.