Showing cracked white pepper and wet slate this wine definitely brings you to a clear sense of place. The 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Vigna Loreto is precise and delineated but as the wine opens you get interludes of ripe fruit blackcurrant and oak spice. The wine is faceted with many layers and angles. Bright cherry sits on the palate with good length leading to fine chalky tannins. You get an authentic taste of Montalcino in this wine. I prefer the Vigna Loreto this year to the more expensive Vigna Schiena d'Asino (from 2018). This is a 9500-bottle release. This is a fantastic set of new wines from Mastrojanni and I am especially enamored by the 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Vigna Loreto. This estate recently acquired a 1.3-hectare Sangiovese vineyard called Poderino at 460 meters above sea level. Published: Dec 14 2023

Blackberries menthol sage stone dust and cloves define the youthfully restrained 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Vigna Loreto. This flows across the palate with ease silky with depths of ripe raspberry and sour cherry as fine-grained tannins saturate toward the close. It finishes spicy and long structured yet lively while stimulating the imagination with its future potential. Hints of cocoa lavender and current leaf linger seeming to last for well over a minute. Color me impressed. - By Eric Guido on November 2023

 Mastrojanni is going through positive changes. Last year Francesco Illy also owner of Podere Le Ripi acquired the winery in total. Today?s Mastrojanni is looking to the future with its 110 hectares located in Castelnuovo dell?Abate most of which are woodlands that have been left untouched. Forty of those hectares are contiguous plantings located around the winery. The vineyards range from 195 to 400 meters mostly on clay and stone soils. The exception is Vigna Loreto which grows on silty sand and river stones once left by the Ocria River. Besides nursing their olive groves back to health the team at Mastrojanni focuses on biodiversity and biodynamics. This year's visit included a tasting of both the 2016s and the soon-to-be-released 2019s. Frankly I didn?t expect the 2019s to outdo the 2016s yet the Vigna Schiena d'Asino is absolutely glorious as is the Vigna Loreto. If anything I have to question why the estate Brunello which is a solid and well-balanced wine doesn?t perform at a slightly higher level. In the end Mastrojanni remains a testament to the importance of Castelnuovo dell?Abate for Montalcino.