Organic Brunello di Montalcino: Podere Il Cocco's Winemaking Identity

IL COCCO
Wine & Vineyards


To make Brunello di Montalcino among the great names of the denomination means choosing, every year, where to stand: chase a consolidated style, or listen to the vineyard. Podere Il Cocco has chosen the second path. What you find in the bottle is never the same as the previous vintage — and for us, that is not a limitation. It is our identity.



Our own identity among Montalcino's greats


Brunello di Montalcino is one of Italy's most celebrated and sought-after wines. To produce it means measuring yourself daily against a denomination that includes historic names, renowned estates, and labels that define the world's understanding of Tuscan wine.

Podere Il Cocco has chosen a different path: not to compete with producers who bottle tens of thousands of cases following a profile built to meet established expectations. Our challenge is to produce a high-quality organic Brunello with a character entirely its own — recognisable, authentic, rooted in this precise corner of territory between the Val d'Orcia and the Valle d'Ombrone.

There is no predefined style that repeats identically year after year. There is a vineyard, there is a vintage, there is a wine. And each year, the task is to interpret them.

winery Brunello di Montalcino organic Podere Il Cocco

Spontaneous fermentation: the heart of our method


Organic wine is not just a question of the vineyard: it is an approach that continues in the cellar. For years we have worked with spontaneous fermentations, relying on the wild yeasts present on the grape skins — no additions, no shortcuts.

This means more work, more attention, more risk. But it also means aromas that change profoundly from one vintage to the next, because the yeast population is different every time, shaped by the climatic conditions, the vineyard microbiome, and the specificity of each individual harvest.

In recent years we have developed a fermentation protocol using dry ice to manage the most delicate phases of the process: controlled spontaneous fermentations, capable of expressing the full complexity of wild yeasts while eliminating the classic defects — excessive volatility, tired notes, the instability that too often accompanies naturally fermented wines produced without the necessary technical expertise.

The goal is clear: to be among the top producers of Brunello di Montalcino. Without compromise on quality, without abandoning the organic and artisanal identity that is the foundation of our work.

Every vintage is its own story


With the climate changes of recent years, the cellar has become a place of daily challenges. Vintages no longer resemble one another. Temperatures are more extreme, rainfall more unpredictable, ripening faster or later than expected. Interpreting each harvest has become an increasingly complex act — and an increasingly fascinating one.

A concrete example. The 2018 vintage was cold, rainy, with less than optimal ripening. A difficult year that tested anyone working with Sangiovese. The 2019 vintage, by contrast, was extraordinary: spectacular clusters, perfect phenolic concentration, a rare natural balance.

Two wines born twelve months apart. Two completely different characters. And two radically different approaches in the cellar — because the wine is decided by the grape, not the producer. The producer listens, and responds accordingly.

Sangiovese vineyard Brunello di Montalcino Podere Il Cocco

Oak as a tool, not an ingredient


The choice of oak is perhaps the most subtle and decisive decision in the production of Brunello di Montalcino. There are no identical barrels for every vintage: each year we choose the oak based on what the wine is asking for.

In cooler, more challenging vintages such as 2018, we prefer Austrian oak. It is a neutral, discreet wood that does not impose vanilla or heavy tertiary aromas on the wine. Its primary characteristic is allowing a slow, well-controlled micro-oxygenation, which helps the Sangiovese soften, find its own balance, and draw out the character hidden beneath an austere tannic structure.

In exceptional vintages such as 2019, the wine already has everything it needs — structure, fruit, evolutionary potential. Here we work with French oak, chosen not generically "from France" but with an almost artisanal precision: wood from southern France, from central France, from northern France. Different forests, different fibre density, different tannin transfer. Each of these origins interacts with the wine in a unique and unrepeatable way, opening nuances that no other choice could provide.

This is what makes every bottle of Brunello Podere Il Cocco a singular object: not the replication of a style, but the photograph of a precise year, a precise vineyard, a precise choice.

Instinct and experience: Giacomo's signature


Twenty-five years of Brunello cannot be learned from books. They are learned by spending nights in the cellar during fermentation, by smelling the barrels in November, by tasting every six months and understanding where the wine is going — and where it wants to go.

Giacomo, producer at Il Cocco since 2000, brings with him what he calls a primordial experience: the ability to choose the right oak, the right moment for racking, the duration of ageing — not based on fixed protocols, but on what the wine communicates at that precise instant.

This is not magic. It is craft. And it is the craft that allows a small organic producer in Montalcino to stand — with respect and with humility — alongside denominations that count world-famous names.

If you would like to discover the Brunello of Podere Il Cocco, you can purchase it directly from us or book a tasting in the cellar during your stay.

To purchase our organic Brunello di Montalcino: discover our wines

To book a cellar tasting: book your tasting

For information and orders: +39 0577 1912043

Brunello di Podere Il Cocco: a wine that changes, every year, like the nature that creates it.


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Organic Brunello di Montalcino: Podere Il Cocco's Winemaking Identity

Wine & Vineyards

To make Brunello di Montalcino among the great names of the denomination means choosing, every year, where to stand: chase a consolidated style, or listen to the vineyard. Podere Il Cocco has chosen the second ... ➔
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