Tuscan Greatness from an Under-the-Radar Appellation: Dei's Vino Nobile

Caterina Dei is an artist, a singer. She studied music in Siena, performed on stage in Milan, and recorded albums. She still sings, but we know her through her work at her family winery in Tuscany’s Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Dei. (Check out our Blog post Marvels on the Margins: Part 2 - Vino Nobile di Montepulciano! for more info on the region)

Caterina says that her love and labor in one sphere has deepened her love and appreciation of the other, and that that shouldn’t be a surprise. In her words: "Music and wine speak the same language — the language of the senses." Her wines are devoted to harmony and beauty, and you can taste both in this 2021.

If Vino Nobile is famous at all, it is as a bargain version of Brunello. That's not wrong, exactly. It's usually based on the same special clone, Sangiovese Grosso (here called Prugnolo Gentile). The regions are close, and the soils, dominated by sandy-clay, are similar. There are wines from each region that could pass for the other.
 
It's the differences that make Vino Nobile irreplaceable, and so much more than bargain-basement Brunello. Jeff's great guide to Vino Nobile goes into the details. But the tl/dr is that the truest wines feel less opulent than Brunello (though more generous than Chianti) with more tension and subtlety. There's great balance in the aromatics and structure. More polyphonic, you might say. Which brings us back to Caterina Dei and her goal of a wine of harmony.

Caterina’s family has classic Vino Nobile terroir. She farms organically, ferments on indigenous yeasts, ages in large, old casks, and rushes nothing. All this slow, painstaking, traditional work gives a wine that perfectly expresses Vino Nobile’s inherent harmony: aromatic complexity, juicy but tense, immediately pleasurable but easily worthy of 10 years in the cellar.

The 2021 may be the best possible material for her work. The year began with a cold spring that damaged buds and cut yields. But the growing season that followed was near-ideal, and it's now regarded as the best of the past decade in the appellation. 

Dei, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, 2021 $37.99
“The 2021 Nobile di Montepulciano is a total pleasure on the nose, wafting up with a display of crushed blackberry, wild blueberry, autumnal spice and licorice aromas. This is juicy in style with crisp red and blue fruit tones that swirl across a stream of brisk acidity as nuances of lavender inform the close. The 2021 leaves a gentle tension and subtly grippy tannins that frame the experience quite well, finishing long yet fresh.” (Eric Guido, Vinous)