For many years Italy's finest wines were difficult to appreciate unless you were a connoisseur. Now the country's greatest wines are much more user-friendly - and remain a perfect choice for a gourmet

Nowhere in the wine world epitomises the changes that have undergone fine wines of all types in the past few years more than Brunello di Montalcino of Italy. Fine wine producers across the world are making more open, more drinkable wines in reaction to consumer demand and the influence of wine critics like America's Robert Parker. And in Montalcino, Italy's finest wine region, the old-style producers have been joined by a swathe of estates making fruit-driven, open, fleshy, rich and delicious Brunellos that retain the unique chocolatey characteristics of the wine but taste much less austere and dry than Brunellos of old.

These star Brunellos of today are essential discoveries for any gourmet, because they are wonderful matches for many types of rich food, from beef casseroles to wild boar stew, from T-bone steak to aged pecorino cheese.

But to start at the beginning: what is Brunello di Montalcino? Montalcino itself is a tiny hilltop town with spectacular views around 60km south of Siena, in Tuscany. The hillsides surrounding the town have a very different soil makeup and warmer climate than the vineyards of Chianti, north of Siena. And while Brunello, the grape, is technically no different to the Sangiovese that makes Chianti Classico, the particular clones used in Montalcino, combined with the climate and soil, make very different, and far richer wines, famed for their chocolatey smoothness.

We know a little about the Brunello grape clones partly because of pioneering research by the Castello Banfi estate, a leading Brunello producer owned by the Italian-American Mariani family. Banfi discovered that there were more than 650 clones of the grape in use in the area, and set about finding out which ones produced the best wines. I discovered the results at a recent tasting in their spectacular estate, south of Montalcino.

Banfi's single-vineyard Poggio all'Oro combines the best of old-style Brunello - the complexity, austerity and structure - with delicious ripe fruit redolent of chocolate-covered plums. For your cellar, I recommend a case of their 1999 or 1997 vintage, and to drink now, seek the magnificent, multi-layered 1995, which is perfect.

Their other single-vineyard offering, Poggio alle Mura, has an outstandingly powerful 1999 but is in need of a few years' ageing; while their 'regular' Brunello from 2000 and 2001 is sumptuous and delightful now.

The unique quality of Brunello that sets it out from any other fine wine is its sheer delicious drinkability. It sounds crude, but you will find yourself slurping from a glass of top Brunello when you would only take delicate sips from a Chateau Margaux.

Banfi is a perfect example of that, and there are other very notable producers. To try them I visited the Enoteca La Fortezza, in Montalcino itself. Producers like Silvio Nardi, Siro Pacenti, Verbena and Sesta make luscious Brunellos, powerful wines that are perfectly balanced and never overwhelming: try the 2000 or 2001 vintages. A wonderfully seductive, almost sexual Brunello in the most beautiful bottle (Brunello bottles and labels are famed for their demonstration of Italian artistry) is Madonna del Piano ("Madonna of the Plains", named for an evocative wisp of fog): kill for the 1997 vintage, otherwise buy 2000 and 2001. For the most interesting Brunello of all, try the outlandishly expensive (several hundred Euros a bottle) Riserva 2000 from Soldera, a tiny producer making a fresh, medium-bodied, fabulously exotic and complex wine, a liquid to die for. - Charles S.

Brandeis:
www.banfi.com
www.enotecalafortezza.com