Uccelliera Rosso di Montalcino

Having been to the winery Uccelliera three times now, there are couple of things that always strike me. First, Andrea Cortonesi, the owner and winemaker, is a powerfully built man of the land. While not tall, he is stocky and muscular with giant hands that resemble lobster claws, stripped through with years of scars from farm work. He was born into a sharecropping family on this land and now owns it. He is a man that clearly, physically embodies his chosen occupation of working on his land, morning until night, vintage after vintage, year after year. He makes one of our favorite Brunellos that in its own way resembles its creator: powerful, of one singular place, and with such a presence that it always commands respect and attention. Or, in Andrea’s own words: “I became a farmer by deliberate personal choice. Although I come from an agricultural family, I could have chosen a different path. I was in time to catch only the last, setting rays of the "old-styIe" farming, when one still he