Pricing in general has really shot up in the past few years. It reminds me a lot of when I first got into wine in the mid-90s and then worked retail in the late 90s while in college. At the time, people were focused on how the prices for high end Bordeaux were going up, but from a retailer perspective I was seeing the highest % price hikes in the mid-to-high end Italian wines.
In case helpful, here was the full MSRP for the 3 Brunellos (Brunelli?) in question (or perhaps I should say 2 Brunellos and 1 Sangiovese IGT since Soldera is no longer in the pool with everyone else) this summer at my local shop where I buy such things for the current releases available.
2019 Soldera Sangivoese IGT (the wine formerly known as a Brunello) - $900
2016 Biondi-Santi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva - $875
2019 Azienda Agricola San Giuseppe Brunello di Montalcino Stella di Campalto Corso - $355
Campalto started turning up here with the 2015 vintage as far as I know, and I think those were around $200 (the sub-designation seems to change yearly- this year “Corso”, the 2015 was generic), so they have taken a pretty steep hike. And supplies are limited.
Biondi-Santi I do not buy, so have little insight to offer there other than the Riserva has always been crazy expensive and $875 does not seem like it has gone up at the same rates as some of the others.
Soldera at $900 is still worth it IMHO, but is yet one more big price hike. This is the one that has really gone up the most in recent years in my experience.
In other words, Soldera is now the priciest, but I think Biondi Santi was for a long time. Stella di Campalto wines are rare enough she could find her way to the Soldera price point in due course.
I purchased a bunch of the 2011 Stella riservas in Montalcino at the castle for $125 ea in 2019. Now the wine is too much and is very difficult to source for a good price.
I would add Donnatella Cinnelli Columbini in this style for BdM.
But - what the subject line in this thread brings to me for bright, light Sangiovese is quite simply Radda Chianti. Istine is a great example of a maker that is stellar at this, and the anatta bottling would do just fine for this sort of need. And if you want a bit more richness go for a warmer year, but the style won’t vary a ton.
Unfortunately, I was cooking while these were being tasted, so I didn’t have a ton of bandwidth to linger.
3 hours slow-ox. All three were on the rustic, less polished side.
'17 was in the best spot and the clear winner of the night, but I suspect it was from having longer time in the bottle and being a weaker vintage. Might not have been crafted to age.
'18 was a bit disappointing. A bit thin for me, but again, super young.
'19 was young, stuffed, but had great potential. From the best vintage of the three. Would cellar.