And a less than usual backstory
It's not your usual wine story. Natalie Oliveros wasn't born to an estate that had been worked by three generations of her forebears; instead, it was basement winemaking in the New York home of her Italian-American family. And it wasn't her first career choice, either; she began by making herself more famous than she intended in the adult entertainment industry. But she had the wine bug. She began to work on a series of wines up and down Italy; one was a big hit and scored well with Parker. In 2011, she arrived at the Brunello estate La Fiorita, and by 2014 she was majority owner. She admits it has been a challenge to earn respect, but what follows is a story of potential unleashed.
La Fiorita lies in the south-eastern quadrant of Brunello (where a lot of Uncorked's other favourite Brunello estates cluster: Sesti, Poggio di Sotto, Argiano, Il Poggione). It had always been good, but Natalie's job was to guide things to the next level. She converted it to organics. The construction of a spacious, dedicated cellar made parcel-by-parcel vinification possible for the first time - which really matters when you are working with sites where grapes ripen at different times. And the cellar she has built is gravity-fed, which means finer tannins and a silkier texture in the wine. It has taken a decade, but as Natalie says, 'there are no shortcuts to quality'.
The estate Brunello draws on fruit from three sites with very diverse soils and aspects, for a complex and harmonious whole; the 2016 enjoys an impressive nervous energy, offering classic Brunello aromas of cherry, black tea, warm earth and spices. The Riserva is always a single vineyard bottling; the warm vintage of 2015 draws on the fruit from the cool, high, rocky Pian Bossolino vineyard, making a concentrated and extraordinarily pretty wine. And Fiore di NO is Natalie's own thumbprint on the estate, only made in the best vintages. It blends fruit from cool Pian Bossolino with its warm counterpoint Poggio al Sole ('hill in the sun') for a wine that is as intense as it is linear, as elegant as it is powerful. /NT
Offered subject to remaining unsold; available imminently
