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Azienda Agricola Caprili
Pure Sangiovese from the south-west slope of Montalcino, aged 30 months in big Slavonian oak casks. Violet and lavender over ripe cherry, fine tannin, fresh acidity. The Bartolommei family have farmed this hill since 1952.
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Caprili describe their own Brunello as violet and lavender with silky tannin. The people who drink it agree on the flowers, and add leather and pipe tobacco on top.
Violet and lavender come first, and those are the estate's own two words for it. Behind the flowers sit ripe cherry and the damp-woodland smell Italians call sottobosco. With a few years in bottle, leather and pipe tobacco arrive, and drinkers rating it mention those more often than any single fruit.
Orange peel
Lavender
Violet
Cherry
Tobacco
Forest Floor
Leather
LiquoriceFull and warm. The 2019 is 15.1% alcohol on Caprili's own analysis, so there is real weight here. The tannin is fine rather than hard, which is what 30 months in big Slavonian casks does that small new barrels do not. Acidity measures just under 6 grams a litre, high for a wine this ripe, and it keeps the whole thing fresh. Bone dry throughout.
Long, with the cherry turning savoury and a twist of bitter orange peel at the end. James Suckling found the same lifted, faintly bitter close in the 2021.
A traditional Montalcino red made for the table, not for sipping alone, and good for around fifteen years from a strong vintage. This is the estate's main Brunello, the cheaper way into a family whose rare AdAlberto Riserva costs twice as much. More than 12,000 people have rated it and they average 4.3 out of 5, praising its balance and its savoury, leathery character.
UK shelves run from about £40 for the 2020 to £44 for the 2017. The world average sits near £41 a bottle before tax, so British prices here are close to fair.
Strong on food and on keeping, weak as a weeknight bottle. At 15% alcohol and properly dry, it rewards a plate of rare beef more than it rewards a sofa.
Firm but fine tannin plus acidity just under 6 grams a litre: built for rare beef, roast pork and game, and it handles aged cheese too.
Brunello di Montalcino is one of Italy's big names, and a five-star 2019 or 2020 carries a table without anyone having to explain it.
The appellation forces four years before sale and Caprili give it 30 months in oak. The 2019 and 2020 will still be improving in 2032.
About £40 here against a world average near £41 before tax, for a wine Wine Spectator scored 96 in 2019. Named Montalcino estates of this standard usually start nearer £50.
Dry, 15% alcohol and properly tannic. Lovely with a steak, but hard work on its own if you mostly drink softer reds.
At £40 a bottle, and needing a real meal beside it, this is not a Tuesday wine.
Scoring is rule-based and deterministic. The model and weightings are documented in our Wine Fit Score methodology.
A compact view of what the Brunello di Montalcino denomination actually requires, and how this bottle sits inside it. Pulled from the official Italian disciplinare.
Montalcino's growers' body scores each harvest out of five stars. 2019 and 2020 both took five. 2017 and 2018 took four, and they taste as different from each other as a drought does from a wet spring.
Montalcino's growers' body gave 2020 five stars, its top mark. Caprili call the year bright and succulent, and say it gave them both generosity and lighter elegance in the same wine. They bottled 45,200 of these, at 14.8% alcohol.
A five-star year, and Caprili's own favourite. The family say only 1990 and 2006 gave them fruit this good across every vineyard. It was picked ripe in mid-September, after a sunny summer broken by regular rain. It is the ripest of the four here at 15.1% alcohol, and Wine Spectator scored it 96 out of 100.
Frost in spring, then one of Montalcino's hottest, driest summers. Small thick-skinned berries gave firmer tannin and a darker, more toasted fruit than usual. The UK merchant selling it tastes dark cherry, leather, dried herbs and tobacco. Four stars, and 14% alcohol, the lightest of the four.
Montalcino's growers' body gave 2020 five stars, its top mark. Caprili call the year bright and succulent, and say it gave them both generosity and lighter elegance in the same wine. They bottled 45,200 of these, at 14.8% alcohol.
Drink-now / hold guidance reflects general style cues for this wine, not a forecast for a specific bottle. Where vintage-level editorial notes exist, they appear above.
The Bartolommei family arrived at Podere Caprili as sharecroppers in January 1952 and bought the farm in 1965. Their first Brunello was the 1978, just 5,000 bottles. Three of Alfo's children run it now.
Italian wine law sorts bottles into a pyramid. DOCG sits at the top: tightly drawn boundaries, prescribed grapes, mandatory ageing, government tasting before release. DOC is the same idea with looser thresholds. IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) is broader still, requiring only that 85% of the grapes come from the named territory.
Brunello di Montalcino is in the DOCG tier. That is not a quality verdict, it is a description of how much freedom the producer has at vinification and ageing.
Brunello di Montalcino falls within Tuscany, covering Comune di Montalcino, Toscana.
Wine route
Half a day to a full day · 4 stops
Open the drive
Winery
Montalcino
Made at Azienda Agricola Caprili, Montalcino. Directions
Wine route in the zone: Brunello and Rosso loop.
Brunello rules stop Caprili selling a harvest for four years, and at least two of those must be in oak. The estate carries the cost of the wine, the space and the money it cannot use, and that lands in the price.
Caprili age it 30 months in casks holding 3,000 to 6,000 litres. Casks that size cost a lot, get replaced rarely, and soften a wine slowly rather than flavouring it.
Only about 15 football pitches of the family's land may be made into Brunello. That came to 45,200 bottles in 2020 and around 55,000 in 2019. Small runs cannot spread their costs the way a big producer can.
The 2020 is labelled 14.5% alcohol, so UK duty is £3.33 a bottle. VAT adds another £6.67 on a £40 sale. That is a quarter of the shelf price before the wine, the shipping or the shop.
Caprili sit on the south-west slope beside Santa Restituta, where the family were sharecroppers before they bought in. Vineyard land inside the Brunello boundary costs many times what land just outside it does.
Their UK merchant calls it remarkable that Caprili are still relatively under the radar. A famous label on the same hill, at the same quality, would charge more. That gap is why £40 buys a 96-point wine.
Dishes that go with this wine
Caprili pour it with red meat, game and aged cheese. The structural reasons are below: fat softens the tannin, acidity cuts a roast, and salt in hard cheese takes the grip down.
Thirty months in big Slavonian casks leaves this tannin fine rather than hard, but it is still there. Fat and blood from rare beef coat your tongue and the grip drops away. What comes back is cherry and violet.
Try with: Fiorentina steak · Brasato al Barolo · Porchetta · Ribeye steak · More pairings →
Caprili measure the acidity at just under 6 grams a litre, which is high for a wine this ripe. That acid cuts the fat off roast beef or duck between mouthfuls, so the last bite tastes as fresh as the first.
Try with: Sunday Roast Beef · Steak and Kidney Pie · Roast Duck · Beef stew · More pairings →
The most common notes people find here are leather, earth and smoke, not fruit. Mushrooms and truffle smell of the same damp woodland, so the plate and the glass say the same thing twice and both get louder.
Try with: Truffle risotto · Porcini mushroom risotto · Tagliatelle al tartufo di Acqualagna · Venison Stew · More pairings →
Salt makes tannin taste softer, and hard sheep's cheese is loaded with it. Caprili pour this with aged cheese themselves. The wine's dried-flower smell also stops a strong pecorino tasting only of farmyard.
Try with: Pecorino sardo e pan carasau · Cheese board · Porchetta · Fiorentina steak · More pairings →
The 2019 runs to 15.1% alcohol and the wine is built to match. Slow-cooked meat has the weight and the melted collagen to stand up to it. A light plate next to this simply disappears.
Try with: Brasato al Barolo · Agnello Ragu Lucano · Ossobuco alla Milanese · Beef stew · More pairings →
At 15% alcohol this wine already carries warmth. Chilli heat adds to it, and the tannin turns hard and bitter on top. You lose the flowers and the cherry and taste only the burn.
Skip with: Green curry · Crispy chilli beef · Lamb bhuna · Kerala prawn curry · Pairing guide →
Fifteen years from a five-star harvest is realistic. Caprili hold every bottle four years before it can be sold, so the wine reaches you already part-way through its life.
Peak around 2032. Best in the years above; holds without falling over either side.
A short splash decant softens the first-pour edge and opens the aromatics.
Aim for the cooler end on a warm day; warmer end opens up more aromatics.
The appellation forces four years before sale and Caprili give it 30 months in oak. The 2019 and 2020 will still be improving in 2032.
£40.00 for a 75cl bottle of the 2020, at Laithwaites, is the best price we track, and we have no signal of further discounting.
Read directly from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Last refresh: 27 Sep 2026, 02:11 BST. We do not hold stock and we do not accept payment for placement.
Confidence · HighDrawn from what drinkers consistently report on Vivino and Wine-Searcher, summarised in our own words. A crowd read across many tasters, not a single critic.
Confidence · MediumFrom the official Italian disciplinare for this denomination, cross-checked against the Ministry of Agriculture register.
Confidence · HighOur reading of the price, drawn from the disciplinare, public UK duty rates, and typical landed-cost benchmarks. Not a quote from the producer or a retailer.
Confidence · MediumStyle guidance for this kind of wine at this price point. Treat it as advice, not a forecast for the bottle in your hand.
Confidence · MediumViolet and lavender first, then ripe cherry, leather and pipe tobacco. It is dry and full bodied, around 15% alcohol, with fine tannin and fresh acidity. The estate ages it 30 months in large Slavonian oak casks, so there is no sweet new-oak flavour.
2019 and 2020 are the two best years. Montalcino's growers' body gave both five stars out of five, its top mark. The 2019 is the riper of the two at 15.1% alcohol, and the estate rates it alongside 1990 and 2006. The 2017 is a hot drought year with firmer tannin, and the 2018 is cooler and lighter.
Fifteen years from the harvest for the strong years, less for 2018. The 2019 and 2020 will still be improving in 2032. Caprili already holds it back four years before release, so nothing here needs long cellaring before you open it.
Rare beef, roast pork and game. The estate itself pours it with red meat, game and aged cheese. A Fiorentina steak is the classic match, because fat and blood soften the tannin. Avoid chilli heat: at 15% alcohol the burn gets worse.
Yes. The world average for this wine is about £41 before tax, and named Montalcino estates of this standard usually start nearer £50. Wine Spectator gave the 2019 96 points out of 100. Caprili is a family estate that has stayed out of the spotlight, which keeps the price down.
Yes, 100% Sangiovese Grosso, the clone Montalcino calls Brunello. The rules of the appellation allow nothing else. Caprili's vines sit at 320 to 340 metres on clay-loam soil full of stones, and are between 15 and 40 years old.
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