JamesSuckling Interviews: Gianlorenzo and Giovanni Neri

JamesSuckling Interviews features innovative and influential winery owners, winemakers and industry notables representing the new generation that is shaping tastes, trends and techniques in the greater wine world. 

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Founded in 1971 by Giovanni Neri, Casanova di Neri is a star producer of single-vineyard Brunello as well as standard Brunello, Rossi di Montalcino and whites like vermentino. Taking up the reins in 1991, Giacomo Neri has expanded the vineyards to 63 hectares throughout the Montalcino region, employing a meticulous winemaking process that includes a three-story gravity-fed cellar and combination of traditional practices and cutting-edge technology. The holdings include a patchwork of top vineyards such as the single plots of “Cerretalto” and “Tenuta Nuova” as well as the southeastern vineyard from which the recent “Giovanni Neri” bottlings are sourced. Giacomo’s sons Gianlorenzo (who handles sales and marketing) and Giovanni (focused on winemaking) represent the third generation of the Neri family, and while respecting tradition and a shared desire to create the elegant, ageable wines for which the estate is known and lauded,  they are forging into new viticultural approaches, a focus on hospitality to attract a new and younger audience and a desire to further promote the approachability of youthful Casanova di Neri wines.

Susan Kostrzewa recently spoke with the brothers about why they think climate change has contributed to the best era of Brunello Casanova has ever seen; how Giacomo has fostered a successful meeting of generational mindsets; why winery experiences can help seal the customer loyalty deal, and why consumers of all ages should get over the fear of opening a young Brunello.

Congratulations on receiving 100 points from JamesSuckling.com for the Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Giovanni Neri 2019 (which was also the No. 7 wine on our Top 100 World Wines of 2023).

[Giovanni Neri] Thank you. Of course we are very happy because 100 points is like winning the Champions League if you like soccer. It’s a wonderful thing but it's also a big responsibility because when you receive a perfect score a number of times, the spotlight is always on you.

Can you talk about the 2019 and 2020 Brunello vintages and how the conditions contributed to the wines’ characters?

[Giovanni] If you compare the 2019 and 2020, 2019 was a more regular, classic vintage with a lot of rain in the spring; 2020 was a drier and hotter vintage, though not as hot as 2003 or 2017. The 2020 harvest was about a week earlier compared to 2019. The result is that the 2020 wines are more approachable and ready for early drinking. 2019 is better for long aging.

Your gravity-fed cellar extends three levels and takes most of your winemaking operation underground. Can you describe the process of this setup and the benefits of this approach?

[Giovanni] We don’t use any pump or energy. We harvest everything by hand. And then we do two different selections of the grapes at the top of the cellar. The first selection is a hand-selection of the best clusters and then an optical selector takes photos and chooses the best berries.

Next, by gravity, the grapes go into the fermentation room and the fermentation tank. The fermentation is about two weeks and then about another two weeks’ maturation with the skin. And then we go directly in the barrel room. It’s especially effective in that we need a very small amount of temperature control. It’s always cool. In the summertime we are never over 18 degrees Celsius [64.4 Fahrenheit]. Beyond being useful for working it’s also better for the environment.

What are some of the most significant climate change challenges in Montalcino overall and how you are handling them? Any silver linings in what they are bringing to the wines?

[Gianlorenzo] I think that in the last 20 years we saw a lot of different vintages because of the changing climate. But if you compare the great Montalcino vintages of the 20th century and those of the last 20 years, there’s an increasing number of excellent vintages now. Climate change has helped us to produce these great wines more often than in the past. But it’s a lot less predictable and very different than it used to be, with no regular springs, and hot summers. As we mentioned before, in 2022 we had about five months without rain from March to the end of June, and in 2023 we had May and June with about 50 days of rain. In 60 days we had 50 days of rain. Every year is different from the past. We have to work harder in the vineyard but the result has been really good.

You represent the 3rd generation of the Neri family in Brunello. Can you talk about the experience of growing up in the family business and what your father, Giacomo, has imparted to you?

[Gianlorenzo] The winery would not be here in this position, with this brand recognition, without him. We always learn a lot from him. We were born and raised here, so during the summer school break we were in the cellar helping during bottling. He started teaching us from a very early age. Learning every aspect of running a winery takes a long time. He’s a great teacher but he also wants us to think by ourselves, to explore our own ideas, debate and come to solutions together and if we want to change something, to say so. He’s a super knowledgeable guy but also very open minded.

Can you talk about the changes you’ve brought? Is your philosophy similar to his?

[Gianlorenzo] Our philosophy is basically the same: offering beautiful, distinctive, terroir-driven wines. That was our grandfather Giovanni’s philosophy, our father’s and ours. But at the same time, small changes can be impactful, and it's a sum of many little things. That's also what our father did when he took over the estate more than 30 years ago. Every generation has to make its own contribution.

As far as examples of change go, there’s the winemaking approach for the new single-vineyard Brunello named after our grandfather, Giovanni Neri, which is from a beautiful 50 year-old vineyard in the southeast of Montalcino. It was our idea to ferment that wine with whole bunches. Casanova has never done this in its winemaking past. It was an experiment at the beginning, but something that came out surprisingly well. My father supported what we believed and that specific Brunello received a perfect score.

Can you talk about the most distinctive elements of your terroir across your vineyards and how that contributes to the unique character of both the blended and single vineyard bottlings?

[Giovanni] All of our Brunellos come from designated vineyards. The White Label, which is our historical Brunello, is a blend from different properties within the same area in the northeast of Montalcino with the necessity of consistent quality every single year. It reflects a very elegant, classic style of Brunello from Casanova. The northeast of Montalcino is considered a very cool area for growing sangiovese and soils that are a mix of limestone, of silty clay. ”Cerretalto” is the name of this natural amphitheater, a beautiful spot that our grandfather discovered more than 45 years ago. It’s a rare type of soil not found in many places in the world, with a very particular microclimate. It’s the vineyard with the widest temperature change between day and night and it was the very first single-vineyard bottling, released by Casanova back in 1981. It's a wine we produce only in very particular vintages, only when we taste the full expression of the terroir.

When our father took over the winery, he fell in love with a piece of land owned by a chef, and wanted to show a different but also great expression of sangiovese. Tenuta Nuova’s first vintage was 1993. And then our new single-vineyard Brunello, named after our grandfather, is from a single plot in the southeast of Montalcino, not very far from Tenuta Nuova. We took very old vines from a family friend during the 50th anniversary of the estate. It’s a dedication to our grandfather, an amazing Brunello that’s unique from the others and very terroir driven.

Your legacy is Brunello, but you are also making highly lauded cabernet and white blends. Do you plan to branch out even further into new varieties and styles?

[Giovanni] We have one hectare of cabernet sauvignon in the south part of Montalcino, close to the Nuova. It was planted by our father in the middle of the ‘90s. We produced the first vintage in 2000. The idea was not to create the usual cabernet with a lot of oak, very smoky, but a cabernet where you feel Montalcino. Elegant, very balanced, not so big in the Casanova style. It’s a very small production because our life is our four vineyards of Brunello. But our super Tuscan is an important wine for us. On whites, we have a hectare of vermentino, just 3,000 bottles. We produce it (blended with grechetto) for winery visitors and it’s an easy-drinking white released six months after harvest.

Wine travel is one of the fastest growing segments of travel worldwide, Can you talk about your newest on-site tasting experiences and the addition of the relais stays? Why do you feel it’s important to offer a full-circle experience for visitors?

[Gianlorenzo] It’s extremely important. I travel a lot for the winery and while our customers are always happy when we visit them, they are even happier when they visit us. We’ve always believed in hospitality. When we were kids, our parents opened the winery to everyone who was interested in tours of the cellar, in tasting, at a time when most other wineries were closed. Today, we have a pretty cool tasting room. And eight years ago we opened our relais, which is a very intimate, luxury, boutique hotel allowing visitors to tour the property and then taste the wine in peace. Our importers, distributors and private consumers return home with something they’ll pass on to their friends, families and colleagues.

They’ll have a connection that goes beyond the bottle.

[Gianlorenzo] They meet the family, meet the people behind the winery and they want that dialogue, to ask us directly, how are things going? Not only in the winery but in our family. We create a direct relationship and stay in touch with a nice group of people. We continue it after the visit with Christmas wishes, etc. This is what’s important: wine connects people.

What global misconception about Brunello would you like to correct? What do you encounter most as far as perspectives in the category when out in the international market?

[Gianlorenzo] Brunello overall is known to be an important wine with great aging potential, but sometimes people are afraid to open a bottle of a recent vintage. They think it’s not drinkable and will be unpleasant. Over time they can only get better, but they are really nice to drink at the time of release. It’s a misconception I'm personally trying to change.

How can the wine industry encourage more people to drink wine, especially in the face of so many current challenges?

[Gianlorenzo] Well as we discussed, great hospitality always helps. Attracting younger people to visit us at the winery helps a lot. And at the same time, we have friends near our age, some of whom are not in the wine industry, who always ask us to pick the wine when we are out because “you are the wine expert, you are the only one who is able to pick a good wine.” That’s something we must change. Wine is for everybody and can be appreciated by everyone because we all have a palate and a nose that’s worthy. We all started from zero.

We have to change the way we communicate. There’s less of a sense that you need to be an “expert” drinking beer, or cocktails or ready-to-go drinks. There’s a perception that to appreciate wine, you have to study enology for years or be an MW. I just say to people, have a glass of wine, and just let me know what you smell, and what are your feelings about it? If you don’t like it, that’s OK. And the fact is, there's always something new to discover and we are all learning together. That’s something we should communicate also to younger generations. Once you start your passion in wine, it's never going to end.

– Susan Kostrzewa