Montalcino, November 2024

Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020, Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019, changes to Rosso di Montalcino DOC, 14 estate visits and 250 tasting notes from Montalcino, November 2024

The most recent edition of Montalcino’s Benvenuto Brunello took place from November 14th-16th, 2024 in the Chiostro del Museo di Sant’Agostino. Home to Il Tempio du Brunello, the “Temple of Brunello,” offices of Il Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino, Civic and Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art of Montalcino, all within the cloisters and edifices of the former 15th century convent of Sant’Agostino.

The focus of Benvenuto Brunello is of course, sangiovese and the questions have been asked so many times. “How do you taste more than 200 wines from one region, all made with the same grape and differentiate between them? How does your palate not suffer from fatigue and how are you able to write a unique tasting note for each wine?” The answers have never been simpler or more obvious – with the Montalcino producers to thank. Montalcino is ever evolving and from year to year the identity of its sangiovese diversify in ways to extrapolate from and improve on the last. Annual assessments consider and unearth more wines defined by their freshness. There are journalists who would have consumers believe that climate change was supposed to result in an ever rising trajectory of hotter, higher alcohol Brunello, but the Montalcinese are instead making better, more drinkable wines. The Brunello and the Rosso have increasingly become a pleasure to taste and write about. That is the story and the messenger is pleased. 

Related – Montalcino Previews 2023: Brunello DOCG 2019, Brunello Riserva DOCG 2018 and older vintages

Val d’Orcia

During the days of Benvenuto Brunello a conference took place at Teatro degli Astrusi with the thematic for 2024 being “what will the future hold for wine Consortia,” hosted by Luciano Ferraro – Editor-in-Chief at Corriere della Sera. The discussion included special guests Giovanni Manetti (President of Il Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico), Albiera Antinori (President of the Consorzio per la Tutela dei Vini DOC Bolgheri e DOC Bolgheri Sassicaia), Francesco Cambria (Consorzio di Tutela dei Vini Etna DOC), Sergio Germano (Consorzio di Tutela Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe e Dogliani) and Christian Marchesini (Consorzio per la Tutela dei Vini Valpolicella). In addition to the awarding of the prestigious Premio Leccio d’Oro (Villa Maiella – Guardiagrele; Tre Dita – Chicago; Garofalo Wine – Avellino; WineWatch – Ft. Lauderdale, Enoteca Piti Golla e Cantina – Firenze), annual Tile presentation and Artist speech (Ferzan Özpetek), there was the assessment of the latest viticultural year and “new method” for qualifying vintages, in this case an overview of 2020.

Changes to Rosso di Montalcino DOC

On the surface the resolution sounds foolproof but the devil always plays the advocate position to wonder if everyone involved is happy, feels heard and included in the decision making. Land rights and the appellative rules of a consortium’s disciplinare will benefit some, but not everyone. Even more changes are afoot with the territory moving on from the official five-star vintage rating system and the creation of a new map to be published by the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino in collaboration with prodigal son Gabriele Gorelli M.W. 

With Michaela Morris, Benvenuto Brunello 2024

Meanwhile the Rosso vintage continues to gain importance because of 202o’s joy and also grip. Many estates only produced 20-30 per cent as compared to 2019 but surely that number was partially a factor of average potential. Adversity and low yields aside the purity remains unrivalled for Rosso, the liveliness too. At its best it was and still is like discovering the first ever vintage of something profound.  Tasting Rosso di Montalcino over the course of those two days that June proved with unequivocal doubt that quality across the board had never been greater or higher. Revisits and new opportunities to look at more Rosso 2020s this past November only serves to cement the notion.

Related – Simply Red: Rosso di Montalcino

La Fortezza di Montalcino

Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vintage 2020 – Much more than a pleasant surprise

Back in June of 2021 when that first Rosso di Montalcino solo event was introduced, the 2020 Rosso di Montalcino vintage was described as a child of a warm and dry season, dangerously low in quantity and one in Rosso terms to envision as lasting for a very long time. Great temperature fluctuations through harvest allowed the development of complex aromatics with increasing intensity. A season that gifted viscosity and the deepest of red cherry fruit. There was considerable mention of sluggish ferments which was especially challenging for malolactic to happen, but producers then, as now, were unconcerned. This is because pH was plenty high enough (nearing 3.4), there was no sinister force at work and this past November it was disclosed that the occurrence was far less of an issue for the Brunello. “Everything can change,” explained Giacomo Bartolommei of Caprili. “Things were going slow but (remember that) Rosso comes out one year after harvest – Brunello is five. We monitored along the way and by the time we needed to bottle all the malolactic was finished.” It helped to be patient and there can be no doubt how much complexity was gained through the unique and diverse aspects of a different vintage. When asked if there was anything truly challenging about 2020 Bartolommei answered “yes…Covid. But not in the vineyard.”

Related – Montalcino Previews 2022: Brunello DOCG 2018, Brunello Riserva DOCG 2017

At Il Giglio with La Morris, Giacomo Bartolommei and la famiglia Machetti

And what about the 2020 Brunello? Is it not amazing how a vintage can deliver so much pleasantry and fineness but in so many different ways? Many 2020s are understated and uncomplicated but the best simply take advantage of their sangiovese DNA. Intelligent sangiovese come from honest people making wines from great terroir. Red fruit purity from a transparency of vintage is reserved for those producers who abide by their climate, this to allow soils to transmit sangiovese into Brunello of finesse, which culminates in fineness. Still others come away layered and compact like compressed Galestro, held together by acidity and tannin. Francesco Ripaccioli found the word “pleasantness” as the most suitable, to describe a vintage “in a more immediate and ready, generous and vibrant way without neglecting those aspects of freshness and verticality which characterize the northern side of Montalcino.” Ripaccioli continued by describing the wines as “being more fleshy, of more pronounced roundness, tannic elegance, all found within a framework of minerality and freshness.” For Canalicchio di Sopra no Riserva will be produced, a decision echoed by many other Montalcino producers.

With the AIS Siena Sommelliers in the Chiostro Museo Montalcino

The summer was about as warm at they come but early September rains cooled the vineyards down and so a ripening delay created an allowance to harvest at “normal” times.  The warmth of July and August beget proper temperature excursions in September to result in a perfectly direct, fruit cumulate, acid retentive, silky tannic style for Montalcino. On the north side of the Montalcino hill it was a regular season harvested on the early side, beginning on or around the last weekend of September. The vintage was a strong and focused one for northerly Montosoli, not because of hot versus cold or wet versus dry but because the oscillations of temperature, prevailing winds and shifts in the space time continuum put the northern hill ahead of many southerly parts. The “Fregoni Index,” indicator of temperature excursion, was 431.9 for the 30 day period between August 23rd and September 21st, in other words the average day for night fluctuation during the final ripening period was 14.4 degrees. A significant statistic to help explain and define a vintage.

With Carmela Gioia and the AIS Siena Sommeliers

In the south the small berries in this vintage made for concentrated and powerful Brunelli with a saltiness, sweet acidity and a note of blood orange. To the east picking was a week later than the south. The bouquet and tannins are like 2012 “but I believe 2020 is more elegant, with fresher tannins and more vibrant acidity” told Giacomo Neri. The frost zones where losses were common from 2017 through 2021 saw an average 20 percent reduction in 2020. The highest elevation beget the airiest sangiovese set to the highest tones because temperature swings and winds blowing in harder will make these things happen. At these elevations between 500 and 600-plus metres the 2020 Annata are structured and gainfully austere, a compliment for the most part and a return to the kind of Brunello you might have been tasting more than ten years ago.

Many producers chose not to make Riserva from 2020 and so it was chance to really concentrate on the Brunello. Far from an indicator that the vintage was poor but more so a philosophy (and a brand of economics) that speaks to making high quality Brunello Annata. That said it was a vintage of 80 percent production (compared to 2019) and so despite no Riserva this represents an average amount of Brunello. 

Tortelli by Chef Anna at Il Giglio Montalcino

Vintage 2019 – A top one for Riserva

Ah yes, the already famous vintage and for many reasons, 99 percent of them good. Comparable to 2016 in the sense that quality and quantity were both high. The oenologist Carlo Ferrini of Giodo described the weather as calda but not caldissima. A statement of the obvious to say that the key to a great wine in Montalcino is the relationship and balance between phenolic maturity and acidity. Achieving this kind of success was challenging in the two previous vintages. The problem with climate extremes is rising pH numbers, loss of acidity and when this happens you can’t make adjustments after harvest to correct deficiencies. This vintage was a literally a breeze. All the correct winds blew through and in 2019 there was 45-plus mm of rain on September 15th. A cleansing rain with no ill effect.

Next generation Montalcino

Yes it was a warm vintage but with no heat spikes upwards of 40 degrees as there had been in 2015 and also 2016. That is why producers were happy with and also relieved by 2019. The oft repeated terms were quality and quantity, but also easy, uncomplicated, fresh and substantial. Even the usage of “The Goldilocks vintage,” not too hard or too soft. Not to dry and not too wet. It was just right. If 2018 was the vertical vintage then 2019 was one of breadth and depth. What a vintage like 2019 allowed a Montalcino winemaker was the choice and the chance to make individual wines, not just good wines. To celebrate the spirit living within each place. To find richness from an uncontaminated place, because climate did not get in the way. To make a style of sangiovese by leaning towards the oxidative and not the reductive because the fruit was so untainted. Brunello that carried the DNA of each farm and levels of acidity to see the prospect of the best examples aging for 30 years or more.

Marino Colleoni – Podere Sante Marie

Higher temperatures but no major spikes and rainfall came at all the right times, first in the winter and then with that spike in mid-summer that cooled the vines but happened after the potential danger of funguses like Peronospera. Vegetative growth was slow and steady and harvest stretched over a few weeks of time. The end result was slow and even ripening which could not be said for either 2017 or 2018. There were a few handfuls of producers that made Riserva for ’17 and ’18 but for the bulk of the territory 2019 was the first since 2016 from which everyone who makes Riserva chose to do so.

Tagliata by Chef Anna at Il Giglio Montalcino

Vigna vs Riserva

These are the sangiovese the agronomist and the oenologist spend their most time with, from vineyard work, by grape ferments and through botti epochs that receive the most nurturing and care. Montalcino’s Vigna and Riserva will change a winemaker, either for better or for worse and they are also the ones that will stand the test of time. The question worth posing to these Montalcinese makers is why? What makes that vineyard block so special and for wines already aged longer than most, why go even longer, sometimes five years further in wood? What is the impetus for it being better to be a thinking monk than a post-modern thinker? How do vintage, elévage and specific vineyard blocks intertwine to create Brunello’s most structured sangiovese? 

Vigna or cru wines have increasingly become the most talked about sangiovese within the trilogy comprised of Brunello, Vigna and Riserva. They are the territory’s answer to any question that prods or provokes a discussion regarding sub-zones and menzione geografica, a.k.a. MGAs. Yet Montalcino is one entity and not all that large a zone as a whole. There are villages and hamlets scattered about and within but to say that all the vineyards in and around say Sant’Angelo in Colle produce Brunello with similar characteristics is just not possible. Montalcino is not in need of any new or imagined rankings. What would it offer the community as a whole that it does not already have?

Montalcino

The regulations set the date of Riserva being released onto the market as January 1st of the fifth year after harvesting. The words of Lorenzo Magnelli of Le Chiuse will always resonate. “We release our Riserva 60 months later than our regular Brunello because I believe it helps the wine to get a stronger identity from Brunello, showing a better balance and more complexity. Brunello Riserva, it’s not the wine that you want to drink young and in this way you really can’t.” The opposite comes from Riccardo Campinoti at Le Ragnaie: “I am not a big Riserva guy, I keep all my wines three years in barrel and I think it’s enough. I much rather prefer single vineyard expression, I keep my best sites for single vineyards. Lately I prefer colder vintages. Warm vintages are too extreme and the wines are not that interesting.”

L’Ispettore Ginko or l’Uomo Pipistrello?

Benvenuto Brunello 2024

The Consorzio’s members come together each November for Benvenuto Brunello at The Chiostro Museo Montalcino for a showcase of the most recent vintages of Brunello, Vigna, Etichetta, Riserva, Rosso, Sant’Antimo and Moscadello. At the 2023 edition there were 118 producers present and this time around that number increased to 126. There are always some notable attendees missing for various reasons and this year the absences also included some wineries who were present in 2023. Altesino, Baricci, Collosorbo, Conti Costanti, Corte dei Venti, Fattoria dei Barbi, Frescobaldi, Gaja, Il Marroneto, Le Gode, Pietra, Salicutti, San Filippo, Siro Pacenti and Valdicava were some of the more obvious non-attending producers. My colleague Michaela Morris and I did organize an assessment of some of these wines outside of the Sommelier-serviced Chiostro tasting. As always the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino events are made possible by the team of President Fabrizio Bindocci, Director Andrea Machetti, Vice-Presidents Giacomo Bartolommei, Riccardo Talenti and Carlotta Salvini who is responsible for Marketing & Communication. Her efforts are unequalled and evident in every aspect of Consorzio business. Collectively they and their staff make Benvenuto Brunello one of the most important wine events in the world.

The 2024 edition of Benvenuto Brunello was Godello’s eighth consecutive opportunity to gauge the current state of Montalcino’s sangiovese. He sat and tasted in the Chiostro for three days, assisted as always by the incredible Sommeliers of AIS Siena and Toscana. Visits to estates were also made, at Canalicchio di Sopra, Donatella Cinelli Colombini (at Fattoria del Colle), Il Poggione, Cerbaia, Terre Nere, Val di Suga, Biondi-Santi, San Polo, Corte Pavone, Le Potazzine, Casanova di Neri, Ridolfi, Sasseti-Livio Pertimali and Podere Sante Marie. If you would like to hop over to view the list in its entirety, starting with the highest rated wines, please click on this link. What follows below are all Godello’s tasting notes for 254 wines; Rosso di Montalcino DOC (29), Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020 (73), Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vigna + Etichetta + Altra Tipologia 2020 (50), Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019 (54), older vintages (29), Toscana IGT + other wines (19).

Rosso di Montalcino

Rosso di Montalcino DOC

Argiano Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2023

Extremely youthful, red candied Rosso with bright berries and simplicity all round. Tart yet naturally sweet, easy as it gets and little structure to discuss. The intention here is bright, loud and clear. Drink 2024-2026.  Tasted November 2024

Camigliano Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2023

The right kind of Rosso is all about generously suggestive ease of early drink-ability and with just enough structure to see three years of no major change or decline. As here with a swirl of red fruit, liquid chalky consistency and good length. Proper Rosso all the way through. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Caprili Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2023

Recognizable Rosso style, open for business while also presenting upright and sturdy, of backbone dictated by acidity. Tells us now is not the best time and with another year the sangiovese housed within this linear Rosso will tend to more essential matters. Fine, composed and for Rosso a severely focused wine. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Le Potazzine Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2023

The sangiovese on Le Potazzine’s property desires the botti for structure and complexity, especially because the average alcoholic fermentation is 40-50 days, longer than just about any in all of Montalcino. Freshness incarnate with a great focus on and of focused acidity, blessed with all the energy of Gigliola, Viola and Sofia combined. The winemaking team of three, mother and two daughters, makers of sangiovese unlike the rest. Of elevation and revelation for Rosso. No diss to 2022 but ’23 is out of this world. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Talenti Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2023

No doubt deeper and broader with darker fruit plus structure from a low quantity and high quality Montalcino vintage. A serious Rosso style, welling with dark berries and minerals in a pool of its own juiced accord. Bigger sangiovese, brooding and laid low, a different kind of acidity but twinning with the tannins to see this live on for several years. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Armilla Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2022

Mildly reductive and when the sangiovese emerges it is clearly a case of Rosso freshness and clarity. Simplicity with a little bit of tannin yet to resolve. Aerate and agitate for current best results or wait six months further. Drink 2025-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Canalicchio di Sopra Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2022

Francesco Ripaccioli’s first year working with the family estate was 2007, while studying economics. He travelled to the U.S. over 20 days, pouring 15 wines at 17 dinners and Rosso was five vintages behind. Dad was selling off the grapes and when Francesco returned he made it his goal to revive Rosso di Montalcino. Every bit of declassified Brunello is destined to find its way into Rosso and it is essential to know that Francesco Ripaccioli is a huge fan of this vintage. He will surely make (Brunello) Riserva from 2022 (and almost for sure from Vigna Mercatale). This is in fact a great Rosso but more important it marks a return to a Canalicchio Rosso di Montalcino, this coming a year after a 2021 that was just a little bit too much. This according to Ripaccioli but many will beg to differ. No arguing the aromatic volume out of ’22 that stuns and a flavour profile of pure sangiovese seduction. Drink 2024-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Casanova di Neri Rosso di Montalcino DOC Giovanni Neri 2022

Then there are the Rosso you might consider as Brunello, of aromatic volume, depth of ideas and a level of seriousness that changes how we think about the scenario. Rosso for Rosso sake sure, for next generation Gian Lorenzo and Giovanni Neri from a single parcel of land owned by a friend of Giacomo Neri’s father. Inclusive of 20 percent whole bunch but here, well here this is not merely a case of existing and servicing, here the matter is something bigger, from soils of lime, rocks and clay, of a sangiovese grander and more intentional. Commanding Rosso, attention grabbing and keeping, then ultimately persisting. As it has been said, not so far from Brunello. But let’s neither talk about that or about Rosso in that way. The concept is this. To make a young, high quality Rosso di Montalcino but more importantly a great sangiovese from a Casanova di Neri vineyard in Montalcino. Full stop. Bottled in November of 2023 after 14 months in vessel. Drink 2025-2032. Tasted twice, November 2024

Cerbaia Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2022

From the 2002 planted vineyard declassified for Rosso though from the 2024 vintage forward the block will be classified exactly for the appellation. Same maceration period (15 days) as the Brunello and sent to Botti for just a few months. Far from a powerful vintage and yet there is an underlying structure running underneath, laying low, keeping the wine linear for now and likely for several years to come. A really interesting Rosso, of its own accord, moving low and slow. Drink 2025-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Col d’Orcia Rosso di Montalcino DOC Vigna Banditella 2022

A rare (labeled) single vineyard Rosso di Montalcino and one to pay close attention to. Not that it is intended to age for a decade or more but the probability runs high that it will. Ripe and made properly, in other words with acidity and just enough tannin intact. The 2022 will likely exceed the last three 2s because it’s just built that way. Quality fruit shines and acidity will be the real driver through time. Drink 2024-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Corte Pavone Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2022

Rosso quality will come from a cross-section of the 80 different micro-plots across the 18 hectares of the Corte Pavone estate. Hayo Loacker says approximately 80 percent of these plots will be gathered for the Rosso. There are few Rosso with as much oomph, in the parlance of our times, powerful restraint and trenchant impression and were this tasted blind there would be at least an 80 percent chance this would be pegged as Brunello. That should be enough to convince 80 percent of consumers what a value this surely is. Drink 2024-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Donatella Cinelli Colombini Rosso Di Montalcino DOC 2022

The 2022 is a Rosso the team and also their partners truly believe in, this because it is “the business card used to present ourselves,” says Violante Gardini Cinelli Colombini. A Rosso of new identity, completeness, comfortable, elegant and “with many impressions inside,” adds Export Manager Irene Lesti. Short stay in wood, mild tannins, a crunchy example with just a touch of the cellar. Balanced and fulsome with great satisfaction guaranteed for any time, day or occasion. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Rosso di Montalcino

Franco Pacenti Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2022

Bright, fresh and focused Rosso di Montalcino from a less than age-worthy vintage though not all are required to be this way. A Rosso for here and now, enjoyable, delicious and of a varietal meets appellative clarity that tells the 2022 story. Harbinger for Brunello and this from a family dong everything right. Drink 2024-2026.  Tasted November 2024

Il Poggione Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2022

Rosso comes from vines at least 15 years of age and rests for a year in 75 percent Botti (52 and 33 hL), the rest in barriques which are never used for the Brunello. Finest of Rosso vintages, not yet released and if Il Poggione’s is any harbinger than the world should wake up and pay attention. If Rosso’s time may not yet have arrived it should happen right here, right now. The ’22 is a suave, silken and structured Rosso, ready and willing but also determined to age slowly, gracefully and incrementally forward. This will surprise seven to 10 years down the road. Take this Rosso to the bank. Drink 2024-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Le Chiuse Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2022

Let’s talk about Rosso di Montalcino. Discuss the merits and the reasons for its existence. If you have been in the vineyard where the largest and most succulent berries are chosen then you will know they will give this appellative level of sangiovese its merit and reason. Lorenzo Magnelli seasons the macerated fruit with large casks to lend it definition and length. Elasticizes and extends its life but do not sleep on a decision to enjoy the wine right here, right now. All is necessary and defines this part of Montalcino life. Drink 2024-2028.  Tasted twice, in the Chiostro and at Alle Logge di Pizza, Montalcino, November 2024

Le Potazzine Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2022

The most unusual of vintages with alcoholic fermentation lasting a record 57 days when the usual range is 40-50. A chalky Rosso, traditional and maturing with ripest, somewhat late picked fruit now more than ready for consumption. You can comfortably drink this wine for the next two years while the cracker 2023 is working through its development.  Last tasted November 2024

Talk about timing – this Rosso 2022 will be bottled tomorrow! It may be a Campione but this is as close to a finished wine without looking backwards or forwards as there can be. Nose and taste the sangiovese of Le Potazzine and you will know that their perfume is omnipresent, all-pervasive, a factor of place and necessity of style. Stylish sangiovese with a shadowy hint of Balsamico. A Rosso of fineness and finesse, grace and controlled chaos. This from the most sluggish and slow ferment on record – 57 days! How can a winemaker and a family sleep through such a time? How can their hearts survive? Well they do and the end result is beauty incarnate. Acidity and moderate structure, first one and then the other, layered and intertwined. Spot on for Le Potazzine. Drink 2024-2028.  Tasted November 2023

Ridolfi Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2022

For Rosso 2022 is a vintage of delectable freshness, succulence and sapidity. The stars have aligned, of vintage and place for fruit that feels and acts like it should. Tart and high acid as a compliment to high-level ripeness and good harmony all-around. Classic Ridolfi red cherry with a roasted pepper and savoury components so consistent with all of the estate’s wines. Drink 2024-2026.  Tasted November 2024

San Guglielmo Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2022

Quite a lot of personality and character for a 2022 Rosso, candied florals to begin and summer basilico to follow. Like a Caprese in a glass, fresh tomato at peak and a seasoned grind of salinity. Love the ripeness, the frank and open generosity, the ease with which this drinks and pleases. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

San Polo Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2022

A truly rich, luxurious and expressive Rosso, as chic, silken and stylish as they come. Crazy beautiful texture ad styled flavours, luxe and seductive. Great fruit obviously but also a winemaker with touch, to turn fruit and acid into something so smooth. This considering 20 percent is subjected to some semi-carbonic maceration and time in amphora. Almost hard to believe the experimental methodology has led to this kind of result. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Biondi-Santi Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2021

Solid rains from October 2020 through January 2021 set the vineyards up with high level water reserves and some freezing winter temperatures convinced the team to delay pruning by several weeks. A late frost affected some vines and a fraction of rain fell through the rest of the season, save for a good rain in June and so the reserves meant almost no hydric stress to the vines. Two major rains in the third week of harvest changed everything – for the better, followed by none during the harvest. Harvest began on September 9th and finished on the 25th with only three no-pick days in between. Welcome to a joyful Rosso, a pure sangiovese child of steel, concrete and wood, one year in large cask. A traditional Biondi-Santi in terms of familial story and elévage, a cultural imperative and adherence to heritage. Ideally balanced with the acidity’s temper exactly on side and fruit right on that line between freshness and next stage presence. Feels like a Rosso that is approaching its peak, ready to climb up onto the plateau to linger right there for several years. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Canalicchio di Sopra Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2021

What is Rosso di Montalcino for Francesco Ripaccioli? “Put the wine in a reduction tank, a.k.a. the bottle,” he says with utmost seriousness. Here is how his Rosso is made, by tasting through barrels and finding wines that will only have the structure to become a “base” Brunello and Ripaccioli does not make that kind of wine. That may sound a bit elitist but it’s not – and also true. Selling less expensive Brunello may be attractive to the market and easier but Francesco will not take these kinds of short cuts. So now you know what a Canalicchio di Sopra Rosso really is. As for 2021 the concentration is at the peak for the DOC and if you slipped this blind into a Brunello tasting not a single taster would pull this as the ringer. But it is a different wine and needs to be treated and respected that way, to think of its potential as that of its character. Still the extract, pH, structure and even acidity are at levels that will see this travel across decades. Oxidation? Not a chance. This could stay in bottle before releasing it until 2025 but it was released in January 2023. For the market. Drink 2025-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Gorelli Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2021

Sweet fruit and availability with an underbelly of sweeter tannin. Chocolate and plums, flavourful and drying at the finish. Good acidity to be sure will help age this a few years.    Last tasted November 2024

That rare and favourable combination of rich and drinkable, a Rosso certifiably composed or Rosso sake. Perfectly ripened, fruit and acidity, classic if modern and clean, pure and reputable Rosso style. A mix of spice and sweetness so that all falls into place, especially for the palate. Drink 2023-2026.  Tasted November 2023

Le Ragnaie Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2021

Don’t know about the rest of you Brunello fools but Rosso is the dagger in the heart as there is no escaping from Le Ragnaie 2021’s knife-edge slashes. A Rosso so perfectly staid, levelled, advanced and arrived, now in the meat of the matter, held tight within the sanguine beauty of its carnal embrace. Rosso truly beget because, well right grapes, place and time have conspired for it to happen. Drink 2024-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Poggio Di Sotto Rosso Di Montalcino DOC 2021

A harbinger for top quality and vintage Brunello di Montalcino in the pipeline, coming next fall to be tasted at Benvenuto Brunello 2025. Tight, fresh, clean and a bit bracing still, with a lovely aromatic swirl and all the sign that speak to longevità. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted at Prowein, March 2024

Terre Nere Rosso di Montalcino DOC Famiglia Vallone 2021

From Vigna Ponte de Falchi which gives the best grapes to the Brunello and the rest to this Rosso. Truly aromatic Rosso of sweet fruit, also acidity while a 25-day maceration lends all that plus a full on glycerol texture. Frost season lessened production by approximately 30 percent and though it usually by-passes this location – not so much luck in 2021. Liquid peppery and silky Rosso, not so structured but still good for three more winters. White chocolate comes in at the finish. Of Terre Nere’s 50,000 bottles average total, the Rosso is normally 3,500. Drink 2024-2026.  Tasted November 2024

Val di Suga Rosso di Montalcino DOC Vigna Spuntali 2021

The regular Rosso is amassed from fruit out of all three zones, northeast, southwest and southeast, the youngest vines used. This next level Rosso is from Vigna Spuntali in southwest Montalcino and the sandiest of the soils. Lightning reflexive Rosso yet a sangiovese residing and resting somewhere in between that and a Brunello Annata. Though to be honest this is quite nervy for a Rosso, far from easy and fruity, more edgy than most, like certain Brunello. A conundrum and so curious of style, but also effect. What to make of this? Time. Drink 2025-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Canalicchio di Sopra Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2020

“I define this as a vintage of pleasantness,” says Francesco Ripaccioli and an early approach means you can enjoy this wine to its fullest right now. At four years of age it’s right there with just a hint of reduction juxtaposed by secondary character creeping in. The wood really covers this sangiovese in a warm blanket but through all this you need only give the wine 15 minutes and it will begin to open. Open it does and the aromatics are full of baking spice cupboard and then the chocolate filling in at the finish.  Last tasted November 2024

Call this Rosso balanced, even if what emits is not quite the same the equanimity of 2019. Still there is nurturing from out of the blanketing warmth of 2020, a linear progression from grippy fruit through acid succulence. The construct of structural motion is more than just a notion and the wine is in constant flux, unsettled, not having arrived anywhere near its final, or intended destination. Will move with the times, be transferable, able to reinvent itself time and time again. As a Canalicchio di Sopra it most certainly will. Bottled only three months ago so understand why there is so much speculation. Francesco Ripaccioli believes the evolution will be like 2016. Drink 2024-2029.  Tasted June 2022

Terre Nere Rosso di Montalcino DOC Campigli Vallone 2020

The most unusual of the last six Rosso vintages because of sluggish malolactic fermentation which resulted in many layered, if oft misunderstood Rosso. Not necessary the case here and to be honest the long maceration here has resulted in a very high quality Rosso with no candied notes and really elastic texture. Acids and tannin as well with less wood noted and less notes of chocolate at the finish. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Il Poggione Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2010

Now twenty-eight months later the 2010 Rosso holds strong, not yet tiring, still in an exotic umami state, poetic and joyous to taste once again. A rare opportunity and one that more producers should take advantage of opportunities for sharing.  Last tasted November 2024

Truth straight and inherent from a Rosso nearly 12 years of age, fresh and immovable. Speaks the structure of a vintage, even for Rosso, were it crafted in this way and equipped to speak on behalf of sangiovese’s age-ability, no matter the what, where and why of the fruit. Camphor oil, anchovy and a melange of salato umami to speak of Sant’Angelo in Colle and then, all of Montalcino. Beautiful wine with a long, liquid chalky finish. Drink 2022-2024.  Tasted June 2022

Brunello 2020

Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Argiano Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Argiano expectation submits to Argiano conviction for Argiano realization. The red fruit purity comes from a transparency of vintage reserved for those producers who abide by their climate. This to allow soils to transmit sangiovese into Brunello of finesse which culminates in fineness. This is the epitome of exacting texture, a sweetness of supporting parts and in the end a matter of ethereal qualities for larger production Brunello di Montalcino. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Armilla Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Armilla has clearly unearthed and pinpointed the sweet spot, at least aromatically speaking for their 2020 Brunello of iridescence and what might be transposed as toothsome on the nose. The palate confirms these initial considerations and yet the mellow, soft and billowy flavours are the most concentrated aspects of this sangiovese’s calm demeanour. Accessible as 2020 is likely to get from a high quality vintage and the restraint is fully appreciated. Drink 2025-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Banfi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Castello Banfi 2020

Banfi delivers a red rose aromatic and correctly dusty sangiovese for 2020, somewhere in the middle zone between transparent and thickly textured. A wide breadth of local balsamico infiltrates and spreads widely through the wine, into aromatics and outwards across the far reaching palate. About as correct and understood as there can be for 2020 Brunello di Montalcino. Drink 2025-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Baricci Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

They are not the only one, but this northerly estate finds the most magical way of aging their sangiovese to a place where upon release the wine already feels organized and ready, residing upon a comfortable plateau to allow a poured glass to make sense almost right away. A crested situation that initiates early generosity and also promises a long stay within these same parameters. Frankly it could be ten years before any new or significant changes occur. The ability to make a Brunello di Montalcino this way is special and so please feel comfortable to open bottles anytime the urge comes along. Keep doing so for 10 years because the precision, expertly judged cask usage and potential are all at the top of the Brunello game. Tannins so fine prove the point and rest the case. Drink 2025-2035.  Tasted November 2024

Camigliano Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Masterfully aromatic 2020 Brunello, new age sangiovese with an old school heart, aromatically shy and waiting for time to reveal the blessed intricacies of its potential. A fresh and crispy 2020, tight yet neither grippy nor austere. Will show its true colours after two, possibly even three years time. Drink 2026-2031.  Tasted November 2024

Campogiovanni Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Enticing aromatic fishing, drawing us in without pause, gloriously perfumed if surely bigger and broader a Brunello from variable 2020. Fluctuating in so many positive ways and respects, in this case southerly and concentrated, crunchy, fresh as need be, tannic to the edges of the palate and the earth. High quality functionality from Campogiovanni’s warm and inviting 2020. Drink 2026-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Canalicchio Di Sopra Brunello Di Montalcino DOCG 2020

No Riserva was made for 2020 because Francesco Ripaccioli was not sure it was the right thing to do and so it was chance to really concentrate on the Brunello. This means all of Vigna (Vecchia) Mercatale’s fruit was used for the Brunello 2020. Far from an indicator that the vintage was poor but more so a philosophy (and a brand of economics) that speaks to making high quality Brunello Annata. That said it was a vintage of 80 percent production (compared to 2019) and so despite no Riserva this represents an average amount of Brunello. The result is more than the sum of parts, including a bit more Vigna Casascia and also Montosoli. It is a time to sit back, stay cool and recognize the philanthropy of a wine that is unequivocally Canalicchio di Sopra. “An educational vintage,” says Ripaccioli, “to explain what Canalicchio di Sopra is, of elegance, opulence and roundness.” More so than 2018, not quite the fullness and everything of 2019 and again, a vintage that represents the place. Might it be compared to 2015 – Yes, but actually no. It’s just 2020. The acids are better, as is the energy, even while the sweetness is not. Salty too and with more potential. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Capanna Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Top level perfume, not shy to express wishes and desires, openly fragrant to announce its sangiovese arrival. A rose garden of many varieties and also fresh cut oak, not yet spicy and no infiltrate tastes to speak of. Freshness and crunch, tart with red citrus and tannins that command attention, direct the flavours, textures and finishing touches. Needs two years before the flavours will begin to explode. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Tenimenti Capanne Ricci Brunello Di Montalcino DOCG 2020

A wood inflected 2020 Brunello, spices run amok around the fullness of aromas, of cinnamon and clove, accented further with the estate’s parochial balsamico. Crusty and brittle tannins play the game of austerity for a sangiovese that will improve with time though fruit won’t likely last beyond the five year mark. Older-schooled in many respects. Drink 2026-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Caparzo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Deeper now, into the 2020 well of fruit that feels layered and compact like compressed Galestro, held together by acidity and tannin. Truth for the interim but with time, say two, three or even four years that schist and clay will rise to the surface and begin to flake, to manifest as a Brunello that speaks in a clear vernacular for the vintage. Of the vintage, open and getable, willing to please with ultra correct style and proper generosity, though always on its own terms. Submit to its will, accept and appreciate the sentiment, await the reward. Drink 2026-2031.  Tasted November 2024

Caprili Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Unique and inviting perfume from 2020 Caprili, floral in an exotic way, like bougainvillea with red fruit so pure and local, of say corbezzolo imagined. You can feel the unction even before a sip and the textural silkiness is confirmed. A memory of Rosso tasted three and a half years ago is revived, clear as an azure blue Montalcino morning, clock tower chiming nine. The connection is felt with palpable meaning, to confirm that Caprili’s are sangiovese of vineyard. Wines of place. What more should there be? Drink 2025-2035.  Tasted November 2024

Carpineto Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Immediacy of aromas bursting out with fruit at the fore and then more. This tells us how well the team abided by vintage and place, where elevation is clearly the impetus to inflate and aerate sangiovese destined to express itself as that place would want it to. A fine 2020 in so many ways, perhaps less dusty and savoury but what might be lost is twice gained. Some austerity from the tartness and tight tannins, not unexpected and even welcomed. Drink 2026-2031.  Tasted November 2024

With Giacomo Neri

Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

“For me the White Label is the benchmark,” insists Giacomo Neri, from vineyards 350-480m all around the estate. A mix of expositions, “and they are all in front of Monte Amiata“ jokes Neri, but not completely. Like the Rosso a relatively short maceration, 18-19 days and aging in 20hL Slavonian casks. In many ways a normal harvest, late September to early October, though the yields were lower. Really traditional winemaking, virtually unchanged for the encouragement of no dry tannins. Perfumes are notable which says this 2020 is a sangiovese of aromatic volume and therefore depth. Have felt this before and so not surprised to once again experience this level of treble and bass through sounds, waves and sensations gone round and round. A swirl, persistent and intense, moving through the fullest and most substantial expressive moments experienced through mouthfeel. Oh sweet volatility and humanity, so ideally constructed, driven and acclimatized. Seduction through sangiovese and keep in mind for 2020 no Ceretalto was produced, that fruit coming here instead and so benchmark indeed. Drink 2025-2034.  Tasted twice, November 2024

Casisano Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Spicy perfumes initiate the tasting process for Casisano 2020, consistent with many of this Tommasi estate’s Brunello di Montalcino. The fruit is not shy, nor are the chalky-grainy tannins and the wine finds its balance between these prominent parts. Still oscillating and swaying a bit which says that structure is currently winning. Could use two full winters to integrate and come away at par. Drink 2026-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Castello Romitorio Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Expect everything and sangiovese might just abide, as it does from the start with a 2020 Brunello so complete there may not be anything else that needs to be said. But there is and it begins with freshness, sublime frescezza, expansive and rising. What follows is the consideration of volume, aromatic then tidal, curling and incremental, drawing and then sculpting texture. Stepping back there is an admiring but then a hole that needs to be filled. The wine continues to etch and carve, to make whole what was once just a sketch. The big picture is the thing and a certain kind of personal opus, for maker and taster, will be the end result. Not for a while though – so play the patient game. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Castello Tricerchi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Here sangiovese takes on a unique aromatic profile as the first to exhibit this note of fresh fennel or liquorice root, along with its cool, salt-licked black cherry profile. The vintage is not necessarily one of fruit but rather in so many cases more about mineral stone. And yet Tricerchi’s delivers the fruit in waves, with fresh cut herbs that muddle into an Amaro finish. Once again place is the driver and these abiders make sure to have transmitted it into bottle. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Castiglion del Bosco Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Cool, sweetly perfumed and ultra modern Brunello di Montalcino. Wood present and judiciously used to add sweet spice and a flavoured sap spread over the palate. Full and expressive, nothing hidden, tannins tight and acids running high. Mid-term ager to serve many purposes. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Cerbaia Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

A regular season though harvested early, beginning on the 24th of September, done in a few days with a large crew for just five hectares to pick. Elevation between 250 and 300m, facing northwest on the northwest slope of the Montalcino hill. The oldest Brunello vineyard was planted in 1988 and the youngest in 2019. All wines are fermented in steel then sent to medium toast Slavonian Botte. Elena Pellegrini feels this is the best wood for north slope sangiovese, to run and smooth out tannins without adding power or too much spice. Aging is usually three years but “there is no rule, we don’t want to force the characteristics of the wines.” As for 2020 the warmth of summer and proper temperature excursions of fall have resulted in a perfectly direct, fruit cumulate, acid retentive, silken tannin style of Montalcino. Neither rustic nor modern but somewhere perfectly comfortable in between. Exactly what intention and expression are meant to execute. Because the wood is felt at this young age you should wait another year to open the first bottles. Seventh heaven for Elena in her seventh vintage at Cerbaia. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Amazing how a vintage can deliver so much pleasantry and fineness but in so many different ways. Here the first to express of squeeze of juice and a scrape of zest, not quite blood orange but maybe the Pianrosso will do just that. Effusive sangiovese is often also succulent sangiovese and Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona generously doles out those facts. Wood felt on the palate with a silky texture yet elastic and extended with a Macchia Mediterranea olive branch. Really good Brunello indeed. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Celestino Pecci Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

The classic label from Celestino Pecci is so bloody correct you might say it is the poster child and definitive representation of what it means to be a Brunello di Montalcino for the 2020 vintage. Delectable red fruit perfume and flavour, mildly incumbent sweet spice and a wisp of mineral smoulder. Transparent and pure, honest and finessed. The last part of the wine shows a mild wood sappy quality but one and another half year of time will resolve and result in the estate’s best Brunello to date. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Col di Lamo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Poised, striking, quiet and composed, hard to figure but my goodness curiosity is piqued. Tall drink of sangiovese water, elixir of Brunello, confident, beautiful and sure. Strikes a varietal pose, statuesque yet fluid, malleable as it needs to be, equipped to transform and age with grace. Wood is known, applied with expertise, for more than just appearance but to explain this to be a Brunello 2020 of and for to enjoy a great experience. Drink 2025-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Conte Francesco Marone Cinzano and Salntiago Marone Cinzano

Col d’Orcia Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Many 2020s are of an understated and uncomplicated kind but this, this is something other. A sangiovese of DNA and consistency, a Brunello like so many of itself that came before this vintage, a recognizable level of substance, concentration and expertise. Why should this change the course of its history to be any different, follow any line but the one it has spent decades creating? The fruit is expressed through floral perfume and expansive breadth by way of ultra-specific toothsome flavours. The spice is spot on, the length an indication of the wine’s potential. Longevity is a guarantee. Drink 2025-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Collemattoni Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Should it be a surprise to find this 2020 to be as full, concentrated and appetizing as it quickly announces to be? Certainly not because fruit breadth is measurable and acidity marches along stride for stride. These are the effects of Botti aging in the most correct and commendable way, of spice and with a fine-grained tannic gait to add weight by way of freight. Solid conditioning which means longevity with very few pauses, certainly no dumb phases to await, not now, nor tomorrow and any stops along the way. Drink 2025-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Conti Costanti Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Colli al Matrichese 2020

Some sangiovese need the bottle and still others need many years in the bottle. The great the few require the latter to get somewhere profound. Such is this case, a Brunello in reserve, fully restrained, compact, tightened and showing little sign of relent. Dense layers of fruit and acidity intertwined, wound like a wire on a winch and aligned. That said the VA, oxidative notes and flat palate presence say things are not correct. Not a good bottle. Needs to be re-tasted.  Tasted November 2024

With Hayo Loacker – Corte Pavone

Corte Pavone Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

As with the Rosso there is a selection from across the entirety of the estate with a small amount of cru fruit, although there are some vineyards to the east of the cantina and facing the Montalcino hill not classified as cru and so are only used in the Annata. No lack of structure from this label, the one that “when everything goes right,” tells Hayo Loacker, “it should make up 50 percent of the Brunello production which includes the five crus.” He then adds, “everything must be high quality and there is no picking formula, but the grapes for this wine are separated based on identified parts of each parcel.” The acidity is dramatic, the tannic backbone perfectly solid and aging potential highly probable. All that to say if you are interested in a Brunello di Montalcino with ripe fruit on the dark side, full package of flavour and more concentration than more than 80 percent of the territory – well then be prepared to crush a few bottles of Corte Pavone. Drink 2024-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Cupano Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Intelligent sangiovese comes from honest people making wines from great terroir. Case in point Cupano with a 2020 built upon top level perfume, volumetric in its aromatic design. So full and substantial it fills you up before a sip. The palate is more of a wonder because the tannins are sandy, fine-grained and not yet interpreted, or rather integrated into the fabric of the overall wine. That could turn out to be a blessing should they find their mettle and melt with the times. Remains to be seen – not entirely surprising for a sangiovese from this estate. Roots run deep for structured wines. Drink 2027-2034.  Tasted November 2024

With Le Donne at Fattoria del Colle

Donatella Cinelli Colombini Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

From the first aroma you will note how the 2020 Brunello’s message is likely the clearest it has ever been capable of transmitting. So many layers to unfold and though some might think 2020 is a “lighter” vintage than think again after you taste this from Donatella Cinelli Colombini. Richly extracted in such a natural way with restraint and an allowance for fruit to express itself, without being led in any particular direction and it has figured out the way. Drink 2025-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Fanti Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Curious to taste the Brunello after the Vallochio and in a way this was the right thing to do. That is because the level of concentration and up front aromatic volume exceeds that of the Vigna label, if not the grace and complexity. But that is to be expected because the Brunello is every person’s sangiovese, built upon yeoman experience for all-purpose expectation. And results which are so perfectly proper from the vintage. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Fattoi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

A mix of poise, strength and grace, a sangiovese so correct to speak of its place and a wine to savour slowly as soon as you choose to partake. That could mean now but it could also be five years later because acidity will keep this fruit very much alive. There is some cask weight to shed and so probably better to give this two years but there is some pleasure put forth in the present. Drink 2025-2031.  Tasted November 2024

Fossacolle Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Seriously rich and heady perfumes emit from a 2020 Brunello that got its fermentative temperatures, timing, infusions and finally macerations so bloody right. No let down as far as flavours and palate texture are concerned which indicates judicious, restrained and properly executed cask aging too. Bravo to this team for these exacting measures to enact a really fine Brunello for 2020. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Fuligni Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

As exotically charged as they come and so when aromas are this pronounced you intuit the great success of not only the growing season but also the fermentative and macerative processes. Fruit would have come off the vine so ripe and ready before dissolving into vats of itself with the greatest of ease. Results in sangiovese of glissade, of Brunello rollng aromatically in waves, sliding and gliding over the palate. Leaves a wake and covers every nerve, fills in pockets, smooths over corners, leaving off and trailing away as rounded as it began. Drink 2025-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Giodo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

There are profound examples of Brunello di Montalcino unique to place and more important vintage. This would be such a sangiovese because its aromas seem to be specific to the land from whence it came and flavours do the same. Or different, perhaps in deference to other wines yet apropos and consistent to itself. Dried herbs and brush, a Macchia Mediterranea ultra specific and in the end what we like to call evergreen biome. This is fascinating when you consider the oenological style of the maker but kudos to a winemaker who lets the land be the ultimate judge. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Giuseppe Gorelli Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Welcome to one of the first and only reductive Brunelli and this from a wine 50 in during Benvenuto’s annual Montalcino affair. Closed fist of sangiovese strength with a savoury masala of lentisk, myrtle, heath, broom and rockrose in ever living-loving greens that currently pique the red fruit. That and Botti Grandi with a mind to make a point as well but my goodness this Brunello is equipped with fruit and acidity to guarantee the prize will last long, fond the road well travelled and the destination far away. How can you not be seriously impressed by the content and structure of this wine? Drink 2027-2036.  Tasted November 2024

Il Palazzone Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Classic Il Palazzone, truthfully, ever so slightly reductive and sapid to the nth degree. Spices from wood all over the entirety of this sangiovese existence, with fruit on the dark cherry side and sap running down the sides of the palate. Qualities here are this wine and this wine’s alone. Drink 2025-2027.  Tasted November 2024

With the Bindocci Family and Michaela Morris at Il Poggione

Il Poggione Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

The summer was about as warm at they come but early September rains cooled the vineyards down and so a delay created an allowance to harvest at “normal” times. The Brunello comes from vines aged to a minimum of 25 years and up to 60 from across 140 hectares of estate vineyards around the hill and village of Sant’Angelo in Colle. The vineyards range in elevation from 140 to 400-plus meters and it is this mix that allows for what is arguably Montalcino’s most consistent Annata Brunello to be made, vintage in and vintage out. A season that gifts purity of red fruit with a decided pomegranate-citrus zesty character, a brightness that is a mix of estate style and the year’s input, an aromatic wave that oscillates upon a line created and always connected to the base. Finely chalky and expressive, open and a mid-term ager available to a wide range of palates. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

La Fiorita Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

A wine familiar to the senses and and mind’s eye, of a settled red crayon in the pool’s centre and plasmic fade to the rim. Of fruit circa the 1980s, lightning reflexes and bright as a rising November Montalcino moon. Clean and promising, more riches and noblesse on the palate to effect a creative and sensorial mouthfeel to linger with cat like stalking, lion or tiger, maybe liger. Stealth iteration that represents 2020 with profound Annata nature. Drink 2025-2032.  Tasted November 2024

La Gerla Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Perfectly mid-weight and textured Brunello, full advantages taken in terms of fruity aromas, flavours and pulpy texture. Good acids here, tannins chalky but not truly grippy and the intention seems knowable to effect Brunello for a pinpointed time. The vintage is and the sangiovese does, together as partners in crime. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

La Lecciaia Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Some are lithe and others are heady, in perfumes that is and here the latter in invoked. Liquidity of that perfume translates to a palate of sweet texture and beauty. While there may be aromatic volume and that surely invites us in, there is not much formidable or grippy structure to see extended longevity. No issue for some. Brunello this way is best meant to please now and for just a few years forward. The epitome of a cellar defender right here. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

La Magia Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Another Brunello that draws from the memory bank to recall a 2020 Rosso of similar ilk to say that DNA is everything if you can draw that connecting line. This is done for a vintage by a maker with the uncanny ability to thread the concepts and parts of his wines. Vintage and place are called upon and they combine for what matters, for sangiovese that speaks clearly, carefully, philosophically and all the while pragmatically. In other words properly and with purpose. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Le Chiuse Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Sometimes there arrives a sangiovese that is the right Brunello for its time and place. Sometimes there is a Brunello that represents its vintage in the way only it can. Sometimes the wine in your glass tells you everything you need to know about more than just what it is. That would be this 2020, understated, fluid, linear and direct. Ripe, justifiable and necessary. Textures of a full story told, crunchy and crisp mainly yet also chewy when it should be. Finessed, focused, pure and unadulterated. Exacting and in motion without wavering, spoken like a true Brunello di Montalcino. From its place and with all the right grapes. Drink 2026-2035.  Tasted November 2024

Le Macioche Famiglia Coratella Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Firm, grippy, reductive and begun with heady vintage force. A wine of its own accord, sangiovese of strength, intention and ambition. Solid fruit core, cask in charge, spice all over the back end. Needs time to accept you and then maybe you will abide. Drink 2026-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Le Potazzine Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Even though the style and character of Brunello di Montalcino is not officially discussed in terms of frazione, in this part of the territory there is just something about the sangiovese way. Northwest that is, looking east to the village, at high elevation and with an ultra specific acidity. Potazzinese acidity and a balsamico noted nowhere else but only on this narrow ridge shared five producers or less. This 2020 in particolare matched by purple fruit, not dark but shaded above its contemporaries, described as say cherry red and it’s just so intoxicating of a sangovese. As crunchy as they come. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Le Ragnaie Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Quite stoic this 2020 Brunello, not caused by reduction but simply youth with freshness unparalleled to beget something special at another date and time. Few Brunello 2020 Annata are as structured and gainfully austere as here, a compliment for the most part and a return to the kind of Brunello this label was at perhaps ten years ago. The restraint and quiet complexity is noted, accepted and lauded, as it rightfully should be. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Lisini Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

At the height of vintage richness and ripeness, the first 2020 to exhibit fruit threefold, of berries, plum and citrus. High acid and while tannic it’s not the sort to keep its firm grip for many years. More of a mid-term ager and a wine to experience best in its fresh and youthful days. Drink 2025-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Mastrojanni Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Some spiciness on the perfume of the Brunello, wood yes but also the fruit speaking in piques and valleys. Peppery, a bit of heat which also talks a fermentative talk. Walks a vintage walk in terms of ripeness and reeks of Montalcino sangiovese. Not necessarily in a current climate way but reminiscent of that 2007-2013 period of regional transition. Curious in its glycerol way and warming again at the finish. Drink 2025-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Máté Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Exotic aromas initiate with candied spice and zesty red fruit in a citrus vein. This sangiovese is buzzing with energy, pulsating with possibilities, in no shape or form yet ready for consumption. Working through its actions, zig-zagging across the palate, piquing and scraping, testing the waters and we wonder where it is heading. Into a slumber soon it appears, later to emerge as a changed wine. Crisp Brunello with structure and fine austerity in the tannins. You need to give up five full minutes to assess this wine or you will miss its point. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Franco Pacenti Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

If at first you are gifted with aromatic sweetness then followed by sangiovese swimming over the palate, well then you know everything is right in the Tuscan world. Fruit is one thing, ultra transparent, ripe and receptive, but tannins like these are what make the magic happen. Well-rounded Brunello must be both linear and open to suggestion, of present tense beauty and the innuendo for finer times ahead. Another stunner from this family and to no surprise. Their ethic is impeccable. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Patrizia Cencioni Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Florally effusive as sangiovese that takes such matters to heart and here Brunello acts in exactly this way. The lithe and effortless is not always the best yet sometimes it’s just what the vintage ordered. Fineness and grace come from away with a Brunello that flies effortlessly and sweetly natural – indeed that is what this is. Bravissima. Drink 2025-2031.  Tasted November 2024

Antinori Pian delle Vigne Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Highly aromatic Pian delle Vigne with a wild cherry swirl swimming in the juices of its own liqueur. Silky fruit unlike 99 percent of the wines made from this vintage, in fact Antinori’s may be the most glycerin of all the ‘20s. Glissade or scorrevole do not begin to describe the slippery texture of this chic elixir. If you like the style and agree to receive the effect then this will fulfill a ‘20 of your dreams. Drink 2025-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Pietra Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Darker fruit than most for 2020 that may shade upscale from say 2018 with a greater number that are bright, red cherry heighteners. Not here and also in reserve of its perfumes but also intensities. Exceedingly open and raucous off the palate, then tart, chalky, bent by liquorice and a fanciful smoulder. Flinty in only the sangiovese way, increasing with interest as you move forward with what it’s got on its mind. Needs the proverbial time. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Pietroso Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

As the adage goes the three most important things that influence a wine are location, location, location. Such is the case for Pietroso on the west slope direction south of Montalcino village, set in a micro-climate that almost inevitably leads to high level ripeness and wines of healthy alcohol. Such is the case once again thoughon this plateau these are some of the most balanced wines in all of Montalcino. Crunchy exterior and chewy interior, no wall between nor any break down but rather this organza veil between the two. Ideal accents in spice and wild forest edibles, at this stage berries and nuts but fungi will not be to far behind. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Podere Brizio Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Aromatic depth for sure and some peppery warmth to that petroleum nose. Built as Brunello, that is to say with full on wood aging, backbone of structure and ample acidity necessary to see time do the right thing. Well-pressed and dressed for success with another two years needed to begin exacting the desired effect. Drink 2026-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Poggio Antico Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Smooth, rose perfumed, gossamer textured sangiovese, the florals candied and flavours as ripe as 2020 will ever be. Fruit from vineyards raised to the highest standard, seamless and with more than ample cask directive, to keep the wine secure and from going astray. A bit syrupy at this stage but there is more then enough elasticity to see this stretch its legs and find a comfortable state of equilibrium. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Fulsome and experienced sangiovese, elastic extrapolate, curated with and for a real sense of purpose. Fruit as only it can be, abiding by a vintage that asks its makers to stay calm, let things develop as everything should be allowed to happen. Traditional and classic winemaking though never too much and so 2020 in these hands makes for top quality Brunello di Montalcino. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Poggio Landi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Optimum ripeness found in a sangiovese of and for the vintage, just a bit to the right of the macerated and textural centre, yet reigned in at just about the right point. What stands out most for this Brunello is its length which indicates many things were done right. Will age somewhere between mid and long term. Drink 2025-2031.  Tasted November 2024

Ridolfi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

A more compact and stoic type of Brunello from a vintage different than at least the previous seven and one to deliver a solid core of fruit that can handle the generous French wood style at Ridolfi. Still the consistency is uncanny and the style unmistakable, a mix of Burgundian, Bordeaux and Slavonian wood that fully determines the course and outcome of these sangiovese. There is more wood felt here but the balance and especially the acidity is tops. This will live longer than the ’19, well at least in terms of how pleasant it will drink. Drink 2024-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Roberto Cipresso Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Heady perfume at the celling for the vintage and it would seem the team has taken a few risks but also liberties to craft this seriously aromatic one. A full on and in 2020 with spikes and piques before flavours enact much of the same. A full and expressive wine with some sappy volatility hanging just below the acceptable line. Risk reward to be clear and not all will understand. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Salvioni La Cerbaiola Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

All in, long maceration time, fruit extraction piquing with excitement and a buzz that runs through the cortex of this wine. Aye there’s the crux of the sangiovese situation, the vintage possibilities and because tannins outrun acidity, well you will need to stop aside and allow this ’20 to take its sweet time. It’s just the necessity and requiem of the situation. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

San Filippo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Dei Comunali 2020

Villages approach to Brunello di Montalcino, of the communes, not one but around and about, fruit come together for a most layered and symbiosis squared approach. And reset because a well-rounded sangiovese marked by intensity and tension is the thing, the factor and raison d’être. Reserve, resolve and retro-advancer, tradition kept and forward-thinking guaranteed. Clean, crunchy and planing, liquid chalky in the mouth, of bite and glide. A textural weave of fabrics and savoury bits mingling with real fruit under the eaves. No real reason to place a timeline or expectation of impending declension because the sangiovese rests in comfortable suspension. No movement imminent now or anytime soon, in other words a Brunello holding back the years. Simply red. Will “get to me the sooner or later.” Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Ilaria Martini and Michael Peter Motiu – San Guglielmo

San Guglielmo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

A wine you can start your day with, at any tasting, any get together. Fresh, open, inviting and generous. A consummate sangiovese host, fragrant fruit from the word go, al fresco and delectable. Expertly judged through all of its courses and stages, from the vineyard through to the glass. There may be this feeling of tranquility in the end, but along the way there is energy and life-affirming Brunello di Montalcino 2020 reality. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

San Polino Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

A deeper set of fruit and mineral circumstances arrives layered and compact though not pressed as to the point of challenging malleability. The strong and grippy sensation gained from the mid-palate forward makes this feel somewhat cumbersome and so time must be granted. That said a feeling of early maturity by way of later harvested sangiovese will send this forward with some haste. Drink 2025-2028.  Tasted November 2024

San Polo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

A blend of the estate’s vineyards and without a doubt one of the first Brunello ‘20s you should consider getting to know. As with Rubio, Rosso and Vignamasso this is another imminently drinkable wine, an ideal sangiovese for the table without a worry that austere tannins are going to get in the way. Full and substantial with great acids and that iron meets Galestro mineral swath that runs through most of San Polo’s wines. Drink 2024-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Sasseti-Livio Pertimali Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Pertimali is a frost zone where losses were common from 2017 through 2021, including 20 percent in 2020. The team tries fires but the vines are too high off the ground and so they moved the pruning from early January to late February which is finally making a great difference. In any case ’20 was a good and promising vintage for Sassetti-Livio with this grey clay and mineral sangiovese, dark of fruit, phenolic, very sapid and sleek. Clean and fresh, metallic, logical for this northeast part of Montalcino looking back up at the hill. A 12 hectare vineyard in basically one large block, certainly one of the largest single blocks in this zone. Requires 15-20 minutes to open and reveal its charms. Drink 2024-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Sesti Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Quiet, demure and always the sepia toned style of sangiovese of a soft, retro-nostalgic aesthetic, yet blessed with controlled and restrained energy. Flowing, graceful, always mindful and yet youthful and so a bit troubled. Fruit at elevation with wind blowing through its canopies, expressed in this Brunello di Montalcino walking with a purposed gait, always just a few centimetres off the ground. Weightless in this sense but at the end of a glass the flavours, sliding while caressing textures and then feelings pout forth before settling back down to the ground. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Talenti Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Reserved and rather quiet for a Talenti Annata to speak of a timely and exacting harvest pick, fruit caught right at the moment the grapes might have chosen to part from their spurs, were you to ask them when that should be. The restraint and also ideally captured acidity put this 2020 Brunello in the zone where tannic freight can rumble comfortably through and the sangiovese is therefore carried forward with a great fission of energy yet to be released. Not sure many will understand this wine in its first three years but there should be little doubt that it will age with the best of the vintage. Drink 2026-2035.  Tasted November 2024

Tenuta Buon Tempo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

A fine and structured Brunello from 2020, bones solid, skeletally upright and with some flesh hanging taut for longevity to exceed some previous vintages. Tart and edgy at times, dusty and fresh, sweetly volatile, a cracker sangiovese that so properly represents the southerly reaches from a less than compact, dense and concentrated vintage. A proper wine made with care, ultra correct and one to pour, teach and explain what 2020 Montalcino truly is. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Francesca Vallone – Terre Nere

Terre Nere Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Warm vintage, truly warm and so the maturity is at peak for a Brunello from two vineyards, Vigna Capanna and Vigna del Sasso. Mature and welling with full glycerin helped out being cut through by the vineyards’ (Galestro) schist-clay mineral abilities to infiltrate and complicate the layers of fruit. Ages in large Botti (2500 and 3000L) to do what 20-25 year-old vines ask the winemaking to do. No doubting the silky texture and beauty of this Brunello with red fruit and so much finishing chocolate on a 15 percent frame. Polished with some tonic botany as well and a sangiovese that surely expresses Castelnuovo dell’Abate’s southern clime. Drink 2024-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Uccelliera Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

It’s all in the farming and you will all be hard-pressed to find fruit riper yet with an edge, fulsome while pulsing with energy and rolling in texture – though still always elastic. The subtleties may be fine but the difference is unequivocal and here Annata for Brunello is akin to Riserva. This is because the brings 2020 fruit so forward while also extending the high probability of its longevity looking well ahead. Minimum 10 years because the backbone is not only strong but malleable and amenable to change. That’s how you do it my friends. Drink 2026-2035.  Tasted November 2024

Val di Suga Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

The Brunello Annata is a blend of the three zones, northeast, southwest and southeast, from all their combined soil types stacked and layered, on average from 20 year-old vines. Double that of the three-part Rosso and so the expectation would be twice the concentration and also structure, or perhaps nearly squared because the fruit sees 24 months in 50 hL Botti. Thinking beyond the fruit and the structure there is the fundamental fact of three-part acidity that manifests in this Brunello as harmony and this dear friends is the distinct Val di Suga advantage. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Ventolaio Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

A sangiovese that feels quite youthful with an eye to the future. Well established and experienced agriculture lends a hand of maturity but the pulse beats fast and the wine is far from settled. Ample if not high level concentration is tempered by some subtle restraint and the fruit continues to try and keep up with the structural parts of the wine. Fine enough in its particular way if surely fresh, alive and in motion. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Villa al Cortile Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

High-toned 2020, par for the vintage, medium concentration, bursts of energy and spirit. As it can happen with sangiovese there are some sweet volatile compounds housed within, that and an austerity in the tannic thrush. Nothing drying or tough mind you but this is a Brunello with some potpourri and tightened leather straps. Give it two years to loosen. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Villa Poggio Salvi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Imminently proper and serviceable Brunello for a vintage that many estates were willing to make a deal, the kind of accord that says I will promise not to seek great ambition in return for a correct, proper and mid-term ageable wine. This is that, middle road taken, no risk involved, simple red fruit, leathery tannins and high acidity. Now with air and better in two years. Drink 2024-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Voliero Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

A sister sangiovese and a younger one that tries to do everything its older sibling does. That means be a child of most experienced agriculture, even if vines are younger and their acumen has not fully developed. No matter because less concentration is belied by more subtlety and fruit coming around a bend will gleefully join and climb the constructive elements of the wine. Quite fine in its own right, if perhaps crispy, crunchy and excitable. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020 – Vigna + Etichetta + Altra Tipologia

Banfi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Poggio alle Mura 2020

Picking up where the largest scaled Brunello leaves off and into the Etichetta label to carry the brightest burning torch for the Castello Banfi world. Here the dusty and balsamico savour is more subtle if still unmistakably there, but now a sangiovese more about texture with a full and substantial liquid chalkiness running low below the brushy aromas and herbal flavours. Some dry Amaro as well and impressive length. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Banfi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vigna Marrucheto 2020

From Annata through Poggio alle Mura and now to Vigna Marrucheto the thread is consistent and frankly obvious for the trilogy of 2020s for Banfi. Local balsamico now, the least dusty and most sweetly herbal pronouncement for the triad and surely the finest interpretation of vintage for the company. The freshest and crunchiest of these sangiovese, most persistent and also stretched elastic yet also taut for best length noted. Very much a Brunello of place. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Camigliano Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Paesaggio Inatteso 2020

Full, substantial and concentrated with an increase of wood spice and also tannin noted. The structure is taut and the tannins doubled are running grippy through the dusty, red rose aromatic and red citrus zest of fruit. This etichetta sangiovese needs more time than many, to settle, integrate and function as it was intended to. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Canalicchio Di Sopra Brunello Di Montalcino DOCG Vigna Montosoli 2020

Montosoli the northerly Montalcino mound, the hill of freshness, the knoll where sangiovese gains grip, savour and elegance, where Canalicchio di Sopra’s Vigna designate Brunello from six hectares delivers approximately five into this wine. The precision and fluidity of this ’20 is just about as fine and graceful as the Ripaccioli have ever produced. Literally the juice or blood of Montosoli’s Galestro, a clay-schist flaking at the surface bleeding back down into the earth, acquired by the roots, vacuumed back up into the vines and gifted to the bunches. Sapidity is similar to 2018 and that year was cold(er) which explains how soil is such the driver, especially for Montosoli. This tastes as you might expect, concentrated, texturally full and without pause. Incredible Brunello. Poised, seemingly ready but not, looking ahead two decades, maybe more. With thanks to perfectly restrained cellar work, timing and decision making. In this moment, at least in terms of clarity, 2020 is a Montosoli vintage. Drink 2026-2036.  Tasted November 2024

Canalicchio Di Sopra Brunello Di Montalcino DOCG Vigna La Casaccia 2020

There is always something shared in common between the two single vineyards that is mitigated by the vintage from year to year – but Montosoli and Casaccia are very different wines. Here for the estate located block the extraction was lower, as was the maceration, to avoid any bitters or green possibilities. “Something was not perfectly mature” figures Francesco Ripaccioli. All that said there is more opulence, concentration and seduction from Casaccia but it plays a bit hard to get and to figure out. Take the time and stay with this Vigna because you need to be sure what kind of wine you are dealing with. A long relationship is necessary and time will tell what will be. Drink 2027-2036.  Tasted November 2024

Capanna Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Nicco 2020

A clear connection to the Capanna which speaks to fruit sharing but Nicco keeps the lion’s share and shows how grand it can be. This is the king of the Capanna jungle, strutting and striding with purpose, stalking yet in no hurry to increase its gait because the hunting game is a long term one. You could place high wagers on this 2020 Etichetta Brunello not moving, changing, morphing or transposing for even a moment before the clock strikes 2029. Seamless construction, impressive on all fronts. Best Nicco to date. Drink 2027-2036.  Tasted November 2020

Caparzo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vigna La Casa 2020

Pure mineral perfume, schist and clay directed, held compact and tight by structure, immovable for now. Seamless transition for more of the same, of earth, rocks and stones making fruit taste like a mouthful of land, all the while sweet, succulent and without wander. Such a focused 2020 for Vigna Brunello that can’t help but be considered as one of the vintage’s top expressions. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Casanuova delle Cerbaie Brunello di Montalcino DOCG CdC 2020

CdC is a sign of Casanuova delle Cerbaie times, a way to simplify and codify sangiovese for a modern world. That is what this 2020 is, shiny and new, a glistening elixir of fine liquid chalky sangiovese, spiced like a chai latte and quite inviting. Not soft but yes wholly accessible, warming in the present and needing just a year of rest to change clothes. CdC might well be an acronym for cooler days coming because when the barrel melts the fruit will shine. That said 2020 is less serious of a vintage for this Brunello. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Tenuta Nuova 2020

Wow. Just wow. Whatever the Casanova di Neri Brunello brings to the table it is this Tenuta Nuova that not only confirms the estate’s current peak performance, the sangiovese here within takes Montalcino to another level. A plateau to describe and descry the modernity of design and effect. The cause is just, it is noble and it is right. Intoxicating perfume, that sweetness of subtle volatility, in other words spot on acidity here met and succeeded by chalky liquidity that can only come from place. The south of Montalcino. Magical vineyards to the southeast of Sant’Angelo in Colle. Smallest berries in this vintage made for a concentrated and powerful Brunello with a saltiness, sweet acidity and a note of blood orange. Ages 30 months in (20 per cent new) tonneaux and another two years in bottle. Complimenti alla famiglia Neri, Giacomo e Figli. Oh mio dio, man. Drink 2026-2039.  Tasted twice, November 2024

Michaela Morris and Gurvinder Bhatia at Casanova di Neri

Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Giovanni Neri 2020

Picked 10 days after Tenuta Nuova, here in the east of Montalcino and the newer vineyard for Casanova di Neri owned by a friend of Giacomo Neri. Now named for his son, the block and the wine, 30 months in tonneaux and a vintage of 20 percent lower yields because of small but concentrated berries. The thread that runs through the three sangiovese is unmistakeable, from the Brunello and its large proportion of Ceretalto fruit, the (south Montalcino) Tenuta Nuova and this Giovanni Neri. Levels of quality and personality, all three setting the bar so high and each distinguished for their style and sense of place. Also pace because the Giovanni Neri does not hurry, act like a rebel of youth or try to do too much, too fast. Like the other two it solicits a love to drink now but also speaks to potential. Once again subtle yet sweet volatility, silkiest of texture and tannin, suave structural simulation and early integration are the hallmarks of a Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino. The bouquet and tannins are like 2012 “but I believe 2020 is more elegant, with fresher tannins and more vibrant acidity” says Giacomo Neri. That is correct, if namely because the experience in recognizing and knowing how to deal with heat, drought, hydric stress, vines shutting down and re-starting is far greater than it was ten years before. Not to mention advances in the cellar. Drink 2026-2037.  Tasted November 2024

Castello Romitorio Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Filo di Seta 2020

Next level sangiovese, of concentration, layering and silk threaded texture realized. Filo di Seta is the sort to make demands on its fruit, to expect the best and make it clear how that not all Etichetta selection Brunello are not created equal. FdS is the sangiovese that mere mortals do not fully understand how it comes to be. Its expressed realities are much too complex to simply say this is a sangiovese that speaks in a vernacular so easily understood. Aromas are less effusive than Romitorio Brunello 2020 but they are more effective because of the profound message they will eventually convey. Eventually because what good reason could there be for the information to be available right now? Same goes for how this sangiovese feels, for how it travels to every corner of the palate, rolls across and over as barely perceived waves, how it lingers for minutes long after the liquid is gone. Filo di Seta is intoxicating and will persist for 20 years. Minimum. Drink 2027-2038.  Tasted November 2024

Castello Tricerchi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG AD 1441 2020

Like son, like father, so goes Etichetta as goes Brunello, of aromas fresh and succulent with liquorice up front. Rich elixir of sangiovese through all the waves of exotically charged località aromas and flavours. A balsamico though not a savoury one, no it’s more herbal and sweetly appetizing. Stimulates the palate to prepare for more sips and were luck be on side, a plate of carne alla griglia. No necessity to specify which protein because AD 1441 will work with all and measurably so. Drink 2025-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Castiglion del Bosco Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Campo del Drago 2020

Plays much harder to get than the Annata Brunello, here with a headier perfume directing a sangiovese wound taut and tight. Similar palate if more concentrated and substantial, the mouthfeel fuller and the finishing spice quite pronounced. Don’t feel the acidity as intense and there is a looseness about the finish. Fruit depth is what separates Campo del Drago from the classic label. Drink 2026-2031.  Tasted November 2024

Celestino Pecci Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Poggio al Carro 2020

From strength to strength, classic to vigna, 2020s both of them, tethered to hard work, improved agriculture and an arrival at the estate’s next level of excellence. Poggio al Carro is sangiovese deserving to be called carissima because this next level of aromatic volume, concentration and mouthfeel makes the grade. The new ceiling is set for sangiovese that will need to live up to this billing, towards the next goal set, to expectation much higher than before. It is believed that another level is possible within these coming five years. PaC confirms the direction. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Pianrosso 2020

Arrive expecting a deeply aromatic sangiovese and that wish may be your command with another compact layering of Brunello by way of Pianrosso. Always seemingly about face or doubling down as compared to the Brunello, as if that wine is a tithe as compared to the full treasure found here. Cask and time the factors that enact this kind of wealth, that amass texture, flavour and spice to sheath, blanket and bury fruit away. Plenty of cappuccino here, so foamy and creamy in the present for a persistently barrel-effected Brunello. Drink 2027-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Vineyards at Corte Pavone

Corte Pavone Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Fior del Vento 2020

Fior del Vento, the Anemone or Windflower, one of five cru Brunello made at Corte Pavone, planted in 1999. Latest to harvest from rocky soils, viz. chalk or limestone and the highest tonality of all the cru sangiovese. Namely acidity and this would never be confused for anything else, but with a notable lime-lightning streak running directly through so very citrus red, akin to pomegranate fruit. Tart and wound expressly tight, tannins flowing as the same suit and length keeping all of these intensive feelings alive. The acids are always high, fruit easiest to pinpoint for harvest and alcohol develops at 0.5 percent higher than the other crus. This may never flesh out like some of the other wines, but it will age very well. A fascinating study in cru mentality. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Corte Pavone Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Fior di Meliloto 2020

Fior di Meliloto, Sweet Yellow Clover and as per the Corte Pavone cru (planted in 1998) considered to be the most floral and fruit forward of the five Brunello. Then again the Galestro (of schist and clay with some calcareous content) brings a structural element, a backbone to support and offer a proper harmonic juxtaposition through an aromatic and juicy sangiovese. Might be called out as fruity but sleeping on these focused and tension-filled tannins would be akin to taking a siesta. Early harvested because of its freshness, northerly orientation and humidity that other crus plots don’t have. Usually lower in alcohol, easy to access and in the end less dramatic, but also seamless as compared to 2019. Drink 2025-2031.  Tasted November 2024

Corte Pavone Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vigna Poggio Molino al Vento 2020

Largest cru, named for a windmill, most diverse soil composition, of sand, silt, clay and Galestro. Being the largest plot there is more variability and therefore requires the most harvest passes to separate the parcels within the greater cru. Essentially the size of three American Football fields and no surprise that this is the sangiovese of the most breadth, broadest character, expressive of the most fruit mixed with wood, wide swath of prominent but furthest thing from austere tannins. Likely the cru Brunello closest in style to the Brunello Annata, yet everything is magnified and hyperbolized, including substantial fruit, length and longevity. Were a Chianti Classico comparison to be made it would be Castello di Ama’s Gran Selezione San Lorenzo that first comes to mind. Drink 2025-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Corte Pavone Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Campo Marzio 2020

The name Campo Marzio is Roman, a war field where preparations were made for battle. “The little warrior,” foo fighter home to the oldest vines (dating to 1958), “the powerful aristocrat,” only remaining plants from when Loacker purchased the land in 1996. Loam soil with clay and Galestro, soccer field in size. There is a presence to this wine, a power but also an energy that pulses through that can’t help but get your attention. The tannins are not from Mars, or the God himself but they are out of this world, tight, focused, commanding and truly Marzioso. The colour and the shape leave an indelible stamp on the palate and the flavours linger ever long. “Hello, I’ve waited here for you…You’ve got to promise not to stop when I say when.” Drink 2026-2035.  Tasted November 2024

Cortonesi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG La Mannella 2020

Headiest of 2020 perfumes, bright and high-toned for excitable feelings incited. Then at once the aromas concentrate, circulate and release once again. Classic Cortonesi style, as textural as it is aromatic, as flavourful as it is broad in mouthfeel. All parts being equal this sangiovese will age slowly, purposefully, with all of its faculties in check. There will be no major peaks, nor valleys neither, but simply a linear trajectory, with wood integrating and fruit slowly morphing until it becomes secondary, to acidity as well, further on down the road. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Dinner with the Brunello Boys

Donatella Cinelli Colombini Brunello Di Montalcino DOCG Progetto Prime Donne 2020

A careful selection by a select team of four women that understand the differences, of fruit resting in barrels and their meaning, especially from 2020 with a collective if smaller sample size. This includes Sommelier Daniella Scrobogna, wine shop owner Astrid Schwarz and two MWs, Madeleine Stenwreth and Rosemary George. Their decisions are blind, they love French wood and so this is a very different wine as a result. More tannins doubling down because of the wood, spices and the specs always seem to work because the collective expertise. Makes for a new wine every year and 2020 is truly structured with piques of interest on either side of the palate. Should age really well, slowly and with grace. In the end it feels like a more traditional Brunello. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Fanti Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vallocchio 2020

Balance and composure adding up to poise is deserving of high praise and while Vallocchio may not attract an over-arching amount of attention it does speak volumes about its purpose and position in the pantheon of Etichetta Brunello. A sangiovese that speaks of place is a sangiovese you should get to know because it may just transport you there. Up to a mid-slope where vines succeed in the best and most challenging of times. Mid is the operative word because this transposes earth and sky, fruit of the vine and human touch. Vallocchio 2020 is super creative and restrained if also subtly striking. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Gianni Brunelli – Le Chiuse di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

Ah hah, ah so, hello Brunello. Wake up and live, learn to love a vintage, take note of what 2020 can and is destined to be. Minerals and elements swirling in a centrifuge of local perfumes, flavours piquing and popping all around. A sangiovese of exceptional textures and capabilities, complex yet accessible, exacting though never obtuse. You can be friends with Brunello but you need to pay attention, re-visit time and time again, spend quality time. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

La Lecciaia Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vigna Manapetra 2020

Two steps forward and one step back from the Brunello, now with twice the aromatic weight and a holding pattern that sees structure cause a singular retreat. The best fruit is clearly saved for Vigna Manapetra because this sangiovese sings, hold its notes and shines. The entirelt of skins at optimum ripeness and phenolic compound developig capabilities are found in the VM for a strong and capable longevity arrived at by design. This will drink with utmost 2020 strength and grace 10 years down the line. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

La Magia Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Ciliegio 2020

Take a little trip, another step and into what really matters for 2020 Brunello di Montalcino. For sangiovese of trenchant selection, information and distinction. The construction of this Ciliegio is a Tuscan build, a structure of thought, prominence and esteem. The fruit may seem secondary because it submits to ideas and intention, but without its arrival into purity held grippy by a phenolic presence there would be no standing edifice. All is in fact vertical and in place. My goodness what a very good Brunello this is. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Le Ragnaie Brunello di Montalcino DOCG V.V. 2020

Old vines do what they do and must, that is to supply an increase of compactionm layering and of course concentration into a Brunello that takes it’s position, established and entrenched in full control. Sure the fruit swells and the aromas duplicate but structure is really the imperative and impetus for taking sangiovese to another level. That said the transparency remains and so do not come here looking for dark and rich Brunello di Montalcino. This you will not find. Drink 2027-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Le Ragnaie Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Casanovina Montosoli 2020

The vintage is a strong and focused one for Montosoli, not because of hot versus cold or wet versus dry but because the oscillations of temperature, prevailing winds and shifts in the space time continuum put the northern hill ahead of many southerly parts. Just in terms of assessments mind you because 2020 overall is quite good, but for Montosoli the results are palpable, the mineral quotient distinguishable and the constructive elements formidable. In a very acceptable way mind you and so you might consider opening your first bottle in just two years time. Drink 2026-2036.  Tasted November 2024

Le Ragnaie Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Fornace 2020

A whole other matter with Fornace, furnace indeed, or rather emergency blanket that protects and keeps fruit safe, secure and free from danger. A different structural construct all together, less of a demand and more of a couverture but one not soon to unwrap and set the fruit free. Higher acid though that’s not readily apparent because of the warmth. Distilled liquid and ground spices working together for a sangiovese’s life yet long to live. Over 15 years to be sure. Drink 2026-2035.  Tasted November 2024

Le Ragnaie Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Passo del Lume Spento 2020

The highest elevation begets the airiest sangiovese set to the highest tones because temperature swings and winds blowing in harder will make these things happen. An occurrence once a year when a Brunello like this startles us, catches our immediate attention and tells us something different is in our glass. And so the sweetness of volatility also blows through, a style is noted in a situation furthest away from many tasters’ idea of Brunello di Montalcino, but change is inevitable and this is in fact all about that idea. Drink 2027-2036.  Tasted November 2024

Mastrojanni Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vigna Loreto 2020

As with the Brunello there is heat on the nose of the single vineyard sangiovese. Peppery warmth, spiced and spicy, like Rotundone in a way. Structure is there though laid low and supportive if far from grippy or overtly demanding. Brooding Brunello and one it seems will find its porcino and tartufo stage before too long. Just a bit mature too soon. Drink 2025-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Máté Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Veltha 2020

Quite a similar prospect with Veltha though the fruit concentration is much deeper and so it can stand up to all the happenings in both acidity and structural movements. Veltha exhibits more strength, grip and breadth but again with fruit so full the intensity is seemingly diminished. More of everything will not always allow for sangiovese as Brunello to arrive in harmony but Veltha will do just fine. Live and love longer, offering up more complexities though at the expense of some innocence lost. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Podere Le Ripi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Cielo di Ulisse 2020

Come and explore the natural world of Brunello di Montalcino, for many a challenging proposition but here befitting the people and the place. The taming of unavoidable volatility is necessary and sweetness ensues because the work put in has done well to keep microbial activty in check. The chalky liquidity is a by-product of the methodology to result in a sangiovese of singular style. Of heroes, mythology and epic skies. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Podere Le Ripi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Amore e Magia 2020

Love and magic, tenderness and mystery, these are the elements of a most natural sangiovese with absolutely perfect vintage fruit. Fruit of a texture you can sink your teeth into, effortlessly sweet and generous for Brunello di Montalcino you need to know. Brunello that has taken some time to arrive at this stage of a measured tenure so sure of its intricacies and ideas, equipped to please even the most cynical lover of Montalcino. Stop chasing labels and drink this. You may never go back. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Poggio Antico Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vigna I Poggi 2020

The single vineyard is unquestionably the finest fruit available from the wide range of estate blocks and so the elegance of this sangiovese is readily understood. Fruit treated with utmost respect, more restraint than the Brunello of stretched breadth and so here the depth is developed with far less effort. Also the way it is tasted and experienced which is seamless and effortless. Fine Vigna for 2020, up there with other fine peers. Drink 2026-2035.  Tasted November 2024

Ridolfi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Donna Rebecca 2020

An etichetta label housing a bigger Brunello with a half percent more alcohol (here at 15) and a part of the blend aged in barriques to mix in with the other components raised in (French, Burgundy and Bordeaux) casks. Heady aromas and grander sangiovese all-around, herbal with an Amaro effect, roasted and toasted elements with more sweet herbaceous moments than the Annata and also Riserva. Paint can, red pepper, rosemary peperoncino. It’s all in, all there and strong upon your palate. Drink 2024-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Ruffino Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Greppone Mazzi 2020

Sweet fruit and also acidity, combined, layered and working as one. Spot on correct and simplified Brunello di Montalcino that celebrates exactly what the vintage and the region need. The acidity is really the best of this sangiovese’s game, its calling card and the thing that will see longevity be added to its name. Drink 2025-20329.  Tasted November 2024

Salicutti Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Sorgente 2020

No mistaking the increased natural presence and let it be allowed to act out an uninhibited free will performance, certainy as compared to the more amalgamated, open to be imitated and broadly sensible Annata. Here play out moments of volatility, unencumbered raciness and minor key of Brettanomyces, reminding of Salicutti vintages that have come before and also some other famous Euro wine regions where practice and effect produce wines that come away like this. That is to say passionate and within reason, comfortably beneath acceptable thresholds, for Sorgente especially because the palate is potent, consistent and carrying forward. The 2020 is a sangiovese of knife’s edge walked and with the potential to get to the other side. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Salicutti Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Piaggione 2020

A wine familiar to the senses and and mind’s eye, of a settled red crayon in the pool’s centre and plasmic fade to the rim. Of fruit circa the 1980s, lightning reflexes and bright as a rising November Montalcino moon. Clean and promising, more riches and noblesse on the palate to effect a creative and sensorial mouthfeel to linger with cat like stalking, lion or tiger, maybe liger. Stealth iteration that represents 2020 with profound Annata nature. Drink 2025-2032.  Tasted November 2024

San Filippo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Le Lucére 2020

Clearly takes the Villages approach to another level in its presentation of fruit and vintage, gregariously as opposed to in reserve. Makes a case for putting the most generously appropriate fruit into this “other” Brunello, an Etichetta conceptualization as opposed to looking at one terroir or place within place. Fineness and focus are second to none yet without absconding from the other or saying there are firsts and seconds in the relationship. Simply different and so merit here is merit there, a shared space as meritocratic democracy with both wines having equal and proportionate say. More rich palate presence here but also intensity and tension. Hard not to fall under the spell and wish for more to be revealed. Drink 2027-2038.  Tasted November 2024

Winemaker Riccardo Fratton – San Polo

San Polo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vignavecchia 2020

The two hectare Vignavecchia vineyard was planted in 1989 and faces southwest on a steep slope. The sangiovese is aged in 600L tonneaux for approximately 30 months and from 2020 this comes away with great delicasse for a Brunello that can sometimes be quite edgy. The intensity and tension are of course part of the package but the silky and luxe quality of the tannins really express the vineyard. The grey clay-Galestro is what determines this particular mineral streak while freshness and acidity are wholly maintained. Yes there have been more intense Brunello coming from this small and exceptional vineyard but that is the magic of vintage variation. Drink 2026-2035.  Tasted November 2024

San Polo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Podernovi 2020

Single vineyard, a.k.a Vigna Brunello, a cru sangiovese from the 1991 planted Podernovi of three hectares facing southeast looking across the Orcia where on a clear November morning you can see the fog layer settling across the Valley. As with every wine made at San Polo the invitation is hospitable and real, the fabric so silken organza and the flavours packed to fill every millimetre of the bottle. More delicate than Vignavecchia replayed once again in this fine and felty 2020. Great vineyard translated through a very fine Brunello of controlled energy. Drink 2025-2032.  Tasted November 2024

San Polino Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Helichrysum 2020

A brighter and less weightier expression as compared to the Annata and so the fruit purity is more readily apparent and visible. Gives the sangiovese its much needed crunch which means more freshness and airy quality. Still the chalky underbelly and compression from the mid-palate forward. Finishes steady and in the end the feeling gained is of a rock solid Etichetta 2020. Drink 2026-2030.  Tasted November 2024

With Lorenzo and Sabina Sassetti

Sassetti-Livio Pertimali Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Il Mulino 2020

The first cru defined by Sassetti-Livio, literally the “windmill.” Il Mulino di Diavoli (of the devil), a scary place for kids at the edge of the forest, but actually the name of the family. Now it lends its name to this wine by the new piece of land purchased from the municipality. The lower vineyard is littered with large fossil shells to speak of the ancient ocean once covering this lower plateau. Fermentation and what follows sees the wine spends its first year in stainless steel to allow the sediments to settle and clean the wine. Ages in 30 hL Slavonian Botti for another after that and then returns to tank before bottling. A unique approach but Lorenzo Sassetti has always worked this way. Consistent with the non single-vineyard Brunello, metallic, phenolic and savoury, sleek on the palate and long. Ultra specific style that only this northerly part of Montalcino will see. With Il Mulino the über clean style is exaggerated, perhaps as an act against Brettanomyces and volatility. The devil wears sangiovese. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Sassetti-Livio Pertimali Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Pertimali 2020

The highest vineyard at 350m and the newest cru slash single vineyard Brunello from Lorenzo and Sassetti-Livio. Just a little bit more than one hectare and as different a fruit profile as you will find between two blocks so close to one another on the same estate. A return to pure red fruit with preserved citrus though the mineral component is in fact consistent with Il Mulino and the Brunello (Annata). More personality here, crunchy sangiovese, sweeter acidity and less phenolic presence from a darker clay vineyard with a good presence of stones though, not the fossils of Il Mulino. Younger vines as well which make for more fruit, refinement, finesse, less power and so (for now) at the expense of longevity. Drink 2025-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Siro Pacenti Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Pelagrilli 2020

Hi quotient of potent sangiovese, as they say – potente ma non trasparente, in other words a Brunello di Montalcino of heft, density and alcohol, here labeled at 15.5 percent. Come expecting heat and flavour intensity, walk away with the gratitude that both are fulfilled. A combination of place dictating the octane and power but also a style persistently followed with estate tradition. If you feel like you are drinking 1997, 2003 or 2007 you are not alone and you may just find yourself as happy as can be. The edging up to oxidative will come sooner rather than later which tells us to drink within that timeline. Drink 2025-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Siro Pacenti Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vecchie Vigne 2020

Vecchie Vigne, or old vines provide a wealth of knowledge, experience and acumen to effect a balanced V.V. Brunello because they have seen and done it all. A full degree less alcohol for this 2020 and so harmony between ripest fruit and the dark secrets of sangiovese are in a controlled, if not quite restrained effect. A serious ’20, powerful within reason and of bigger, more prominent and edgy acidity. Volatile to a degree yet no more than 1000s of IGT or Brunello reds that have come to market in the last 55 years. These are traditional wines within that epoch and they are consistent. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Talenti Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Piero 2020

From vintage to vintage the Annata and the Etichetta Piero can be eerily similar or wide apart and 2020 expresses as more of the latter. The fruit content, weight and concentration is clearly upgraded and the sangiovese spirit intensified for a Piero of superlative fortitude. This is the exemption to the Talenti rule and Brunello di Montalcino because few wines celebrate or rather revere the appellation as much as this ode to a pioneer and patriarch. Every time this wine is tasted that image from Barbi’s Museo is conjured, of a grandson in Montalcinese garb carrying a flag with crest and arms past the Fortezza. This wine is simply a solid construct of fruit, acidity and tannin, linear, vertical and built to age. That it will. Drink 2027-2036.  Tasted November 2024

Tenuta Buon Tempo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Oliveto P.56 2020

Etichetta Oliveto P.56, cerimoniale indeed, sweetly natural and fluid elixir of sangiovese, exquisite of tannins and exceedingly appropriate as an extant step forward from Annata. Crunchy and fresh, dusty trails left far behind, now like walking a strada bianca with no wake or cloud from gravel kicked up behind. Good bones, exacting fine lines and celebratory. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Val di Suga Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vigna Poggio al Granchio 2020

From the southeastern Montalcino sector where the sangiovese is want to deliver sanguine character from higher elevation (at 450m) off an 18.5 hectare set of blocks. Granchio feels like the mid-way point between Vigna del Lago and Spuntali, part lightning and part candied florals, a best of both worlds, fulsome and concentrated Vigna Brunello. Shows a bit of reduction and less bitterness but my goodness it’s a stony sangiovese with a schisty-Galestro heart. Who needs fruit when you have rocks? First vintage was 2009 as a single cru Brunello. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Val di Suga Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vigna del Lago 2020

From the archetype of the crus, first established in 1983 at 280m on 18 hectares in northeast Montalcino. Took a break for some time and has returned, average age of the wines now 17 years post replanting. A skeletal clay soil by the Asso River and the lake that gives the vineyard its name. More silky texture and less lightning than the others from 2020 and surely the one with the most caressing mouthfeel. Also a mild cherry stone bitterness and white chocolate mint to speak of wood churning a very particular local balsamico. Fascinating, because this is the notion of Vigna del Lago. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Brunello Riserva 2019

Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Riserva 2019

Banfi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Poggio alle Mura 2019

Nothing immediate about the style of this Riserva screams Riserva but sometimes restraint and subtlety do well to open the game. The aromatics are effusive and in effect pretty but they are not what fully draw us in. Red roses and fresh squeezed pomegranate, in other words red citrus then translated onto the palate in similar fashion. A crisp Riserva, understated yet energetic and set up for future promise. A good Riserva in fact though not one that struts or flashes its feathers. Drink 2025-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Baricci Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Nello e Sello 2019

True blue to life Riserva with all the aspects of its existence set composed of layers, complexities, intricacies and numbers. Fruit here, there and everywhere, acidity omnipresent and structure provided for the slow unwind. Big vintage at 15 percent, not unusual and at that level an effect of harmony because all parts reside at the same heightened awareness. No letdown, holes or omissions from an understood if always traditional Brunello, unblemished, untarnished and capable of ample forward thinking. Drink 2027-2037.  Tasted November 2024

Camigliano Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Gualto 2019

Strong perfumes, maximum. floral inhalant properly aggressive and engaging. You might expect a peppery kick to the aromas but you can take the longest breath in and the sangiovese nurtures, while opening you up for what’s to come. My goodness what a finessed and seamless experience this delivers, never too high or too low, always incisive and inviting. This house got both of its Brunello so right in 2019 and also 2020. They are not to be missed. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Campogiovanni Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Il Quercione 2019

The barrel, big blessed barrel off the top with fully captured and macerated fruit, together like two pigs in the proverbial earth. A rich, sappy and savoury confiture capture of sangiovese as any in the entirety of Montalcino. A Brunello that must be given almost as much time as it would have spent in cask. Patience is the requiem for eventual pleasure. Drink 2027-2032.  Tasted November 2024

An animated Francesco Ripaccioli

Canalicchio Di Sopra Brunello Di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

“The idea of Riserva for us is the Vigna that best represents the vintage,” which for Francesco Ripaccioli means micro-climate is the greatest influence and going forward Riserva will only be made when “there is a chance to celebrate.” Recalibrate your conceptual aptitude and ability to quantify aromatic volume because a vintage like 2019 will only come around once in a long period of time. That might mean a decade, perhaps longer or just every few years but 2019 is that vintage, that individual, that friend, that mentor. “I’m still thinking it’s one of the greatest vintages ever, at least since I’ve been making wines. The harvest was the best ever.” It was as if the grapes were falling off the vines into waiting hands. Perfectly ripe for super open sangiovese speaking early truths, exited like a child so excited it can’t wait to get the story out. The words come fast, like the aromas and flavours and we are not equipped to take them all in. Please slow down, go easy on me, allow me to nose, taste and assess these explosions and infinite readings of poly-phenolic data in a measured way. So much happening from Riserva 2019, not experienced before and maybe never again. This is Francesco Ripaccioli’s current opus, fundamental to the message of Canalicchio di Sopra.  Last tasted November 2024

Actually from a single vineyard called Vignavecchia Mercatale and the oldest vines planted in 1987 at the border with Ridolfi. Riserva 2019 will not be released for another year plus a few months so this bottled Canalicchio poetry has yet to write its next stanzas after just a few that have been put to memory. And yet the story has a beginning, is moving through its first few maneuvers, schemes and intrigues towards the delivery of much, much more before any final lines are read aloud. Does this Riserva traverse at least the same chasm as between Rosso and Brunello? The answer is emphatically yes and in fact the gap is equally doubled because the sangiovese in cask must have been a monster while it was transferring from post alcoholic fermentation through malolactic fermentation and finally into the final wine it has become. Or not because what is now will not be in a few more years and that refrain will be repeated several times before it is nosed and tasted with any real developed maturity. What we do know is that Riserva 2019 is powerful while elegant, which is the ultimate goal. Drink 2028-2042.  Tasted November 2023

Capanna Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Strong and accessible perfumes for this 2019 Riserva with a multitude of fruits and minerals swirling in centrifuge. Some dried fruit elements, frutta di bosco and more fruit like fragola secco before the seriousness of the tannins take charge. They are ferocious and they mean business. Pay attention to their warning and wait some years before opening. Drink 2027-2036.  Tasted November 2024

Caparzo Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

How can you not love and appreciate the salty entry of this Riserva, a sangiovese so clearly expressive of the minerals and elements in its vineyard soils it can’t help but release them through the pores of sangiovese. Two parts are present however and the mouthfeel tells another story, of silky texture and commanding tannins that gather it all up in a rounded and bonded package. Riserva should be a slow release of Brunello and this surely fits the style. Drink 2027-2035.  Tasted November 2024

Caprili Ad Alberto

Caprili Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Ad Alberto 2019

There are Riserva that simply act and feel like Riserva. This is exactly that, of an aromatic and also palate richness, mille-feuille patterning needing years to come away one layer at a time. A true to form, style and appellation example that uses the best of its produce, technologies and methodologies to create something representative, respectful and impactful. A born leader to bring people together. Drink 2026-2035.  Tasted November 2024

Carpineto Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Enticing and inviting aromas from a typically dusty Riserva with spices throughout. Candied sort, baking and savoury, all the while in and from an arid environment at elevation. This screams 500-plus meters and bright red fruit remains fresh because acidity sets it up this way. Wood needs to melt an settle in because at present it dominates the second half of this sangiovese. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Castello Romitorio Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Riserva should of course be a Brunello of concentration, attitude and confidence but who would not be seduced by such an energetic and excitable example? This is something extra and other for 2019, fruit finding its shine in the face of an eminence front of acidity drawn from a place matched stride for stride by the estate’s indelibly stamped style. Nary a waver of focus for a moment, nor could wondering about this Riserva as something precious ever be called into question. The construct and effects create a movie filed into the classics, epic in design, to watch over and over because there is always something new to learn. “The sun shines and people forget.” It’s hard to make great Brunello, but who else finds the way if not Romitorio? Drink 2027-2038.  Tasted November 2024

Castiglion del Bosco Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Millecento 2019

Good aromatic swirl and also volume, pretty and sweetly scented with red berries unlike most areas of Montalcino. Also herbal but again sweetly so, basil namely with tomato water and a waxy note as well. Quite tannic and forceful to say wait but perhaps not long so that the fruit might begin to wane. Drink 2026-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Cerbaia Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

In 2022 Elena Pellegrini decided to enlist Giuseppe Gorelli to help make her wines. She loved the wines of Le Potazzine and her Cerbaia farm’s proximity on the northwest side of Montalcino seemed like a good fit. Riserva has changed because people want wines to drink now but let’s face it this is Brunello so there must be some age-ability. Last (previous) Riserva vintages were made in 2015 and 2016 from the sangiovese chosen out of the oldest cru (Vigna) closest to the cellar. That was ripped out and re-planted in 2019 and so this ’19 was made from the best rows out of the biggest vineyard that were deemed worthy because of the pinpointed intricacies. A superior fine chalkiness and tightest tannic wind, aggressive though not austere, anything but immediately approachable, gangly even, like a young giraffe, but when it hits its stride it will run like the wind. A warmth runs through the veins from just a trickle down without swallowing a sip, like feeling your entire physiology change, warming and pleasing. And this with top quality acidity that will see the wine through to rise upon the high peak of a plateau from 2026 and 10 years onward. Drink 2026-2036.  Tasted November 2024

Col di Lamo Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Richness and maturity, concentration and experience. Soft and demure, chic and fashionable. Seductive and classic. What more needs to be said? No need to wait – this sangiovese is ready and willing to please. Drink 2025-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Col d’Orcia Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Vigna Nastagio 2019

Riserva in every way, facet and exemplary aspect of expression. Full fruit captured with compliments from all the sangiovese parts that lift, buoy and raise the bar. Single vineyard focus, grand and important, large cask so very necessary to create a symbiotic relationship with the fruit. A wine structured for the purpose of longevity, absolutely crucial to what happens with this estate and so try to imagine how this Vigna Brunello will be, 10, 15 and 20 years forward. Always changing and for the most part also impressing. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Collemattoni Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Fontelontano 2019

High-level qualities for Riserva designate sangiovese so simpatico with one another to represent the appellative style. Rich and even luxurious, perfumed of musky red fruits and sparked by generous acidity. Plenty of wood, chocolatey and smooth though tannins do ache and dry at the finish. Time will bring it all together and then a smooth sangiovese will result. Drink 2026-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Hayo Loacker – Corte Pavone

Corte Pavone Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Anemone al Sole 2019

Anemone del Sole, wind and (of) sun, the chalkiest soil and therefore should rightly be a sangiovese of highest tones, lightning reflexes and zesty citrus intensity. Like Fior del Vento this is a late harvested cru and more often than not the latest. Long hung grapes means slow-developed phenolics and 2019 is the vintage you can be assured of a great layered maturity and an elastic grip that winds around the palate. The experience of this vineyard, the organics, and biodynamics, acumen of Hayo Loacker’s two decades of developing craft and understanding, this position in northwest Montalcino, infrared calculations of vigour in the vineyard – All this adds up to making a wine of controlled drama and restrained dynamism that creates sangiovese as Brunello di Montalcino in Riserva form. Salty finish like few other Brunello. Drink 2025-2035.  Tasted November 2024

Corte Pavone Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Vigna Poggio Molino al Vento 2019

Hayo Loacker stopped making Riserva in 2006 and in 2007 moved towards the direction of crus, eventually identifying five of them on the estate. The first released vintage was 2013 and then Riserva returned in 2015. Vigna Poggio Molino al Vento is Corte Pavone’s largest cru, “the windmill,” three American Football fields in size, multifarious soil composition with sand, silt, clay and the flakey above ground manifestation called Galestro. This largest plot is variable in its ripening with the requiem to separate parts of the whole out of selections and into fermentations. Darkest hue, ripest sangiovese, richest composition, variability and diversity of fruit pulpy, zesty and musky, all in with high and mighty, sweet meeting sour acidity. Intensity, magnification, juxtaposition, justification and celebration. Of a place. Drink 2027-2038.  Tasted November 2024

Costanti Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Colli al Matrichese 2019

Bloody intensity for Riserva 2019, high spirited, relentless and aching intensity. Fast-flowing sanguine intensity, feeling hurried with nervous energy and tension but consistent, unstoppable and unwavering. Trenchant purpose with fruit carried along in the river of piquing acidity and tannic truth, the weight and freight at peak with no end in sight, nor slower pace or levelling neither. A Brunello Riserva with an unlimited ceiling, a journey begun to travel somewhere far away, from a plan to execute with conscious movement and extreme prejudice. A sangiovese timeless and ageless, all-knowing and ambitious. Still somehow there is a child within and the adult that waits on the other side. Drink 2028-2039.  Tasted November 2024

Cupano Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

A Riserva of extreme ripeness, fully arrived without a single berry having failed to mature under the harvest’s threshold. Full extraction grabs grip and tannic thrush with thankful acidity keeping the energy and faith alive. Big wine with a penchant for a stylistic that might be found outside of this tiny territory where lower elevations and high solar radiation predominate. A large band of consumer taste will find great relish in this high-powered, classed and priced Brunello. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Donatella Cinelli Colombini Brunello Di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

On paper, in most minds and fully speaking this is a top vintage for Brunello di Montalcino and therefore anticipation for Riserva runs extremely high. Crunchy exterior and seriously leathery interior for sangiovese with layers upon layers of tannin needing to unfold. Great aromatic volume and tannic freight, a rush of intensity and finally composure. Oh baby, at the finish Riserva delivers a punch, so youthful and like the final drum crash at the end of a song that simply rocks. Indelible stamp of Donatella and a Riserva built for the ages. Drink 2026-2036.  Tasted November 2024

Fattoi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

A bit shy this ’19 Riserva, quiet and understated, in no hurry to reveal what it has in store. Which would come to be a settled, calm and easy sangiovese that drinks with generosity. There is a some tannin yet of the non-demanding kind. No anxiety induced here and with just another year in bottle all systems shoud be ready top go. Drink 2025-2028.  Tasted November 2024

Fossacolle Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Solid Riserva construct, emboldened by strong acidity and forceful tannins yet fruit with a stiff resolve to handle the realities of the wine. Really well made, large cask aging certainly a factor and while there is some late austerity is feels wholly acceptable and appropriate for this wine. Seems just and right to be set up for a good long run. Drink 2027-2035.  Tasted November 2024

Gianni Brunelli Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Le Chiuse di Sotto 2019

To no surprise this sangiovese delivers the goods with trenchant intention, confidence and also style. There is a richness of floral and minerals in the air, aromatic volume and a depth of quality that speaks in the most succinct but also sincere ways. Aye this is seriously good Riserva. Many parts to unravel, unfurl and unload over 10-15 years time. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Giuseppe Gorelli Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Not your Nonno’s Riserva, nor a clean and modern iteration, but something other. A deep well filled with serious, concentrated and even severe aromas hard to decipher. Deepest inhalant, fullest volume, as vigorously distilled and undiluted as they come. No let down on the palate and while there is a modicum of volatility its actually met, challenged and suppressed by this proper realization of reduction and never dissipating spice. Casks have much to do with all of this and the wine is far from finished, but three years should bring everything into view. Drink 2027-2038.  Tasted November 2024

Il Poggione Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Vigna Paganelli 2019

Indelible stamp of Il Poggione yet a sangiovese of more breadth and purity of varietal fruit to speak of the highest ceiling possible for what this large estate can create. It’s almost as if Francesco Bindocci, winemaker Alessandro Bindocci and their team had been waiting a good long time to be able to make such a wine. Riserva (and Vigna) truth spoken, ranging far and wide with a fruit-acid-tannin relationship so in synch it seems no mistakes could have possibly been made. This is the first since 2016 and each time the team checked on its progress there was a feeling of something exceptional taking place. Also a maturity, a plateau climbed up to and reached for a Riserva that will remain in such a state for many years. The structure is frankly impeccable. A selection from a single vineyard of 12 hectares that makes 40,000 bottles. Incidentally a green harvest is performed and in non-Riserva vintages the fruit selected knees up in the Brunello. Drink 2025-2035.  Tasted November 2024

La Fiorita Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Exactly what Riserva must be, wound tight, concentrated and well, reserved. A reflection of its makers but you must know that reflection includes the past, present and most importantly the future. The look of experience and how that translates to looking forward, something this sangiovese solicits and we in turn find ourselves dong just that. We see the light with assistance from sweetest and at times intensely wound tight (but also tart) acidity. The 2019 Riserva is a mix of that tension and finest grained tannins. The future is later, as it must be. Drink 2027-2036.  Tasted November 2024

La Gerla Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Gli Angeli 2019

Fine and proper Riserva of knowable and fashionable styling, never precious nor gratuitous with a goal to gift pleasure. First with pleasant perfumes and a celebration of vintage fruit, followed by a richesse of more ropiness, ripeness and textural generosity. Well made, clean and exemplary for time, appellation and place. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

La Magia Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Far from an old-school sort of Riserva but neither is this the kind to view as ultra modern and accessible. More of a Riserva decided by an own accord and one from which every part, moment and step feels defined to arrive at a pre-determined place. The planning meets the execution and results automatically follow. Truth be told (and you need to know this part), it is the agriculture that really drives this wine. It is truly made in the vineyard. Drink 2026-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Le Potazzine Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

The first Riserva produced at Le Potazzine since 2015 and one of the only estates not to make one in 2016. Not the first time Gigliola Gianetti and her daughters chose to do something different than the rest. A dichotomous Riserva because the fruit is so ripe and well developed juxtaposed against that classic Potazzinese acidity raging high. This local balsamico is uncanny, Only the third Riserva made, including ’11 and ’15. The singular Riserva, of gentle extraction, a wet submerged cap and the elegance you need to know. Drink 2027-2036.  Tasted November 2024

Lisini Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Maturity in the fruit yet also energy to keep the faith for a Riserva that holding nothing back. Late picked but also acidity maintained which is the thing that will help this age forward. You can certainly imagine the porcino and tartufo in the not too distant future but that acidity and brushy balsamico will always be expressed. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Máté Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Yes! Lovely Riserva perfumes, oh my, of fresh cut flowers in a bloody gorgeous bouquet and what follows delivers absolutely no letdown. A finest Riserva sangiovese from head to tail, top to bottom, inside and out. Subtle when need be, gregarious as should be and generous to no fault of anyone but me. Drink 2026-2035.  Tasted November 2024

Patrizia Cencioni Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Rich Riserva with plenty of cask aging imparted into the aromas and especially the texture of the silky, glistening and chocolatey sangiovese. Terrific acids are the impetus for its structural significance and also the reason it will drink well for many years to come. The style is contemporary if not immediate and should appeal to a great many lovers of Brunello di Montalcino. Especially those who choose Riserva. Drink 2025-2031.  Tasted November 2024

Antinori Pian delle Vigne Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Vignaferrovia 2019

A Riserva of good bones from a zone that can’t help but push its greenery into the aromatics of the wine. Sangiovese and Macchia Medditeranea, a match made in southwestern Montalcino heaven, specific and especially when a wine like this doubles down with single vineyard slash cru designation. The richness is only exceeded by that balsamico and yes this qualifies uninterruptedly as a Brunello Riserva of place. Wood has been expertly used, never overdone and while this may not age forever it will do well at tables for several years to come. Top quality PdV from 2019.  Last tasted November 2024

As for the single Vignaferrovia the exaggeration and hyperbole for modern terms in Pian Delle Vigne is wrought times two with density, thick texture and also thankfully a wild side. No estate vineyard sangiovese from Antinori has ever reached this pinnacle of luxe, not Tignanello, not Badia a Passignano, not Pian delle Vigne. It just has to be a triumph for the team and Piero Antinori’s vision. Once again those who seek the modern style and can afford such a sangiovese will be very pleased with this top 2019 result. Drink 2026-2035.  Tasted November 2023

Pietra Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Aromatically gregarious with effusively floral perfumes, stabs of scents meeting musky red fruits for a party up front. A Riserva style no doubt, rich and luxe with mature fruit and also acidity more developed than some ‘19s. Still that acidity keeps the energy and faith alive even while the fruit will soon express some leathery notes. Pliable and elastic heifer and so this sangiovese will be one to chew. Gets down to business on the back end with grippy tannins and a hold on the palate. Drink 2025-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Pietroso Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Ah the satisfaction of high quality Brunello di Montalcino Riserva from small, dedicated and focused production. Higher levels of all related parts together as one; fruit, acid, wood, texture and tannin, each in accord with one another, not linear but adjacently juxtaposed as a decipherable puzzle to make a whole. Ample freshness, chewy and quite settled considering the youth of the wine. Fine for 2019, representative and close to ready. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Podere Le Ripi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Lupi Sirene 2019

Exceedingly ample fruit sourced from the estate’s best and treated to risk-reward winemaking. This means less handling and almost surely a highest percentage of whole bunches used because the quality of the vintage encouraged the practice. A bit stewed following a certain level of overripeness but it all seems to come together in the end. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Poggio Antico Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Aye here’s the Riserva rub in glorious aromatic form, a bouquet that fills a room, draws others in to find out what smells so nice. Ripe at the right point, moment captured and that simply means a vintage got right. Freshness as well, tart at the edge of tense, intensity and energy at peak. Not hard to see the excellence in such a sangiovese to represent Montalcino in the most appropriate and impressive of ways. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Now to the bar set high, vintage after vintage for a Riserva that finds the promise of fruit raised at a 500m clime directly across the valley apposite Monte Amiata’s imposing force. Fruit never taken for granted, always treated with respect and c’mon how special is this sangiovese? The epitome of what it means, how it works and comes to be. It being Brunello di Montalcino from historical vineyards in the hands of the top of top professional teams. This is the result, seamless and long, without peer for where it comes from. There is no argument. Drink 2026-2036.  Tasted November 2024

Renieri Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

High quality Riserva for many reasons, fruit ripeness and glissade obviously but my goodness the best of acidity is captured, retained and persists. This is often the crux of great Riserva because when you pick fruit late and (oft) last you may just need a pick me up to keep the energy alive. This does that so well. Drink 2026-2034. T asted November 2024

Ridolfi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Mercatale 2019

In a mini vertical that includes ’17, ’16 and ’15 only the oldest of the four is showing any perceivable secondary character. They are all Mercatale in origin, 21 hectares in total at Ridolfi from a zonazione shared with other producers. This makes it a real menzione or cru, not a monopole and there are more than one that have defined it as being appropriate for Riserva, including Canalicchio di Sopra. The 2019 is influenced by the Botti, part Burgundian, part Bordealais, all French but there is some good freshness. Spices run amok, fruit is severely within the cherry idiom and though the wood is not toasted, there is a nightshade (tomato and eggplant) char to this sangiovese. Drink 2026-2030.  Tasted November 2024

San Filippo Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Le Lucére 2019

From one Etichetta to another, Brunello to Riserva, same name and therefore a connectivity as the tie that binds the two. When you approach this wine you can almost feel Le Lucére turn the handle of a door, slowly open it without a sound and enter the room. It knows you are confounded by the angular intensity, wood spice and char, intensity and austerity of the tannin. Less of a friendly spirit as compared to the Brunello and it stands there, insisting you must pause, reflect, wait some more and allow for time. Maybe 10 years time before he walks back out of the room. Drink 2028-2038.  Tasted November 2024

San Guglielmo Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

First Riserva for the resurrected house. There feels to be so many turning points in the estate’s young tenure and then again it’s really a matter of improvement year after year. The perfumes on Riserva 2019 tell the story of another goal reached because whatever deficiencies or awkward transitions may or may have net been present before are clearly absent now. The roses and scraped red citrus skins give way to sweet acidity, sways and waves of decomposed stony infiltrates and a dreamy, almost warming quality into the latter stages of the experience. Fine sangiovese, very good Riserva, on the transparent side but nothing that need be taken away from its quality. Subsequent vintages of Riserva are more likely to see greater separation between the two appellative Brunello. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

San Polino Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Thick aromatics, a full elixir by volume and yet a sangiovese with matters more concerned with mouthfeel. The perfumes are evidently spiced, the transitions relatively seamless and the end result is a fine fabric of a wine. Clear comport of Brunello Riserva with best fruit, ideas and plan conceived. Wood is also a big factor and the late stages get dry, with cocoa especially at the finish. Drink 2026-2031.  Tasted November 2024

Sasseti-Livio Pertimali Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Riserva is aged in 500L Slavonian tonneaux and the net level of refinement is there from the start. Riserva is not produced in every vintage, the previous one being 2016, another of which defined and labeled as a five-star vintage, a municipal categorization that will be discontinued in 2021. Riserva at Sassetti-Livio is a bunch by bunch selection in the two vineyards, same aging time as the Brunello and Vigna labels, three years in Botti and a year in bottle. Smooth and sleek once again, sweetly phenolic, seriously croccante and closer in style to the Mulino than the Pertimali, which means more structure in Riserva. There is a subtle amount of volatility, consistent with the 2019 Brunello, a character trait that disappears in the 2020s. Usually makes a maximum 5,000-6,000 bottles. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Sesti Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Phenomena 2019

There are normal, standard Brunello di Montalcino Riserva, there are proper and representative examples, also exceptional versions and then there are the ones of ephemeral beauty. Fleeting in part because of their natural perfumes, scents that come from the fruiting bodies alone, mostly from the skins and yet like people there are some whose scents you never forget. Such is the case with Phenomena, a silent and measured creature of sangiovese but one that comes back to your thoughts and senses long after you are no longer in contact with the wine. Phenomena is also a Brunello of feeling, which means something ethereal, tactile and conclusive. Not seductive mind you, but suggestive and this 2019 will carry on, for some impossibly calculated infinite amount of time, as close to forever as could justifiably be imagined. Drink 2026-2038.  Tasted November 2024

Talenti Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Pian di Conte 2019

Important vintage for the Vigna-Cru-Riserva sangiovese, important for everyone but these things become magnified when the history, heritage and vine age of a place are well documented. Some wines are conceived and executed with such excellence so to guarantee excellence vintage in and vintage out – this would qualify as such a wine. Purity and experience of sangiovese, matter of fact reality and execution by the makers, the end result being a seamless and superlative sangiovese. Optimum ripeness and retained freshness receive their cues from acidity and tannin in complete control. Nothing ambitious, gratuitous or overarching, simply the right way to make an appetitive meets appellative wine that many consider to exist at the top of the pyramid. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Tenuta Buon Tempo Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Oliveto P.56 2019

High praise immediately afforded to the sentimental aromas on this Riserva, of candied flowers, other dabs and pretty smells. What can rightly be called effusive for perfume yet not shy, nor does this hide from its opening salvoes. From the ripeness comes warmth and a certain kind of Brunello, the sort that rolls through in waves, never crashing but in a way infinite and certainly always there. A substantial and even slick Riserva on the road to accomplishment, still working towards bettering itself and the next peak is but a vintage away. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Tenuta San Giorgio Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Ugolforte 2019

Proper and it can be said again, a proper Riserva for the always on an upward trajectory label for this estate. Not quite the higher elevation excellence that comes from the OG property but this is a sangiovese that out punches many in its weight class. Crisp exterior and chewy interior, wood a factor and just a bit outside the arena with proper tannins lending a typical drying sensation ay the finish. Drink 2026-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Tenute Silvio Nardi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Quite a ripe expression for Brunello Riserva, of deeply rendered sangiovese fruit. Leads to the idea that this should be consumed on the earlier side, well ahead of some higher-toned and frantically energetic peers. The tannins are present, as is the feeling of wood and so one year forward should exact the right time for this wine. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Terre Nere Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Campigli Vallone 2019

Pasquale Vallone was from close to Palermo in Sicily and became a banker at Monte dei Paschi in Siena. His father and Francesca Vallone’s grandfather moved the family to Tuscany in 1950. They had relatives in Siena and the families (many of them together) bought the other farm outside of Montalcino. The first vintage of Brunello was 2002, Francesca started working at the winery in 2010, full time in 2012. The wines are in her hands and the sangiovese for Riserva comes from Vigna (Piccolo) del Sasso, treated to a long 30-day maceration and as with many Montalcinese estates this 2019 is the first Riserva made since 2016. Double the structure and also the fun which says these were easily the best grapes destined for the top wine from this vintage. This Riserva is a very strong wine and it is also beautiful, big but elegant and likely the finest Brunello made at Terre Nere to date. Three B’s, beauty, brains and brawn. This is proper Riserva, gorgeous now, smart as sangiovese and with power, which means it will surely age. Drink 2026-2033.  Tasted November 2024

Terre Nere Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Capriolo 2019

Single vineyard Brunello from the Vigna Capriolo, a reference to the deer that roam the adjacent forest and this being a Riserva like label. Not made in 2017 and yet it was out of 2018, though not Riserva from that season. This ’19 is so very different to both Annata and Campigli Vallone Riserva but yes the DNA is in the same family. A stoic, less gregarious and more serious sangiovese in this case, wood a great factor and texture thickened, mille-feuille layered with alternating cream, chocolate and alcohol-soaked biscuits. Not to say like Tiramisu but there is a feeling in the mouth coming through that way. Terrific aromatics, a lot to digest, integrate and wait to see how this comes together. Many will find the seduction while it seems as though Riserva will age longer. Drink 2026-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Uccelliera Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Maturity and just a step away to over maturity from Riserva 2019 taking this into a sappy and braised place. Lacking some focus and also structure as a result. This is a bottle that suggests the wine that got away from its maker but would certainly look forward to tasting another bottle.  Tasted November 2024

Ventolaio Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

Some problematic aromas that stem from high acetic qualities. Paint can and tomato leaf, crayon and baked potato. Something wrong here – not a sound bottle. Needs to re-tasted.  Tasted November 2024

Villa Poggio Salvi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2019

High tonality, energy, intensity and aromas running amok. White peppery and brushy balsamico, wood spice everywhere in a Riserva running hither and thither. Crunchy red fruit, very tart and austere at the end. Needs time to come together. Drink 2026-2030.  Tasted November 2024

Amantis

Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2019 and older

Amantis Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2019

Produced just southeast of the village with Biondi-Santi as the nearest neighbour. A five week maceration under submerged cap, 24-30 months in 15 hL Botti. Deeper fruit profile (as compared to Amantis’ Montecucco sangiovese), from clay more specific to Montalcino and a spice cupboard omnipresent through the details of the sangiovese. Orange peel and highest quality chocolate but what’s so much more essential to understand is the profile of texture and quality of character. A Brunello nearly arriving at its ideal maturity and upon that plateau it will remain, rest and relax for five years, quite likely many more. Drink 2025-2034.  Tasted November 2024

Biondi-Santi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Tenuta “Greppo” 2019

The viticultural dream is a sum total 450mm of rainfall from April through August and 2019 delivered much of that desired amount. A season with a fresh summer when only two days reached 34 degrees, some lower temps in mid-July and good rains. In September humidity dropped between September 11th and 16th which performed wonders on developing the complexity of ’19’s aromas. Harvest between Sept. 14th and October 1st with just a three day pause when 50mm of rain fell between Sept. 22nd and 24th. Welcome to a “classic” vintage, more than 2021 because of the equality in a push-pull posit tug between acidity and tannin. Still so young, needing the winter plus a few extra months to open to at least a point where you can get a sneak preview of what’s to come from a balanced wine in all respects. Dry extract of 27.5, alcohol of 13.6 and acidity in a beautiful state. A mineral Biondi-Santi Brunello, not exactly salty so let’s say mezzo-mezzo salty and sapid. We really don’t know what 2019 is going to be, not now, not yet and that is the magic. Who could not wait to taste this again in a year, after three and then 25 after that? Drink 2026-2038.  Tasted November 2024

Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Cerretalto 2019

The Cerretalto canyon is this singular Brunello’s origin, the place defined by Giacomo Neri as a plintite, of quartz, iron and magnesium elements residing next to and bleeding into the four hectare vineyard, which is incidentally a cooler località for Montalcino and very special place. Rare in the world, of an elemental-geological symbiosis found in parts of Australia, Brazil, China and here, in Montalcino. “It’s another planet” insists Giacomo Neri. You will smell blood and flint (a.k.a. gunpowder) because of the mineral personality. This is Brunello di Montalcino from sangiovese something altogether incomparable. A sangiovese wearing the terroir of a Tuscan trough on its sleeve, having spent two and a half years in tonneaux (more or less 20 percent new) and the same amount of time in bottle ahead of its much anticipated release. Yes the aromatics are concerned with trace metals and ingredients of the canalone of Torrenieri, but do not sleep on the purity and modernity of red to black fruit, or at least the perception brought forth because of the minerals involved. Sweetness of acidity is classic Casanova di Neri for 2020 but in Cerretalto they are near perfect and the tannins move from those noted out of Tenuta Nuova multiplied by the Giovanni Nero fineness to now enter into the arena of higher love. For the first time this estate’s Brunello di Montalcino should be given an absurd amount of time. Observing it change in the glass over 30 minutes explains much of what is needed to be known. Drink 2028-2043.  Tasted November 2024

Vineyard at Cerbaia

Cerbaia Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2019

Would be hard to argue over the fortuitous ripeness, formidable level of concentration and how the vintage has clearly been celebrated across the board. Yes that is all true and Cerbaia’s takes full advantage of the good fortune. Aromatic volume is sound turned up and flavours reach every corner of the palate. The harmony between all parts is conclusive and the sangiovese-ness cannot be missed. It’s like a perfect vintage in many ways, though 2020 will take things to a more structured level and could very well outlive this vintage. Not many will agree but the subtleties in 2020 and the beauty in its tannins tell this story. The ’19 is both approachable and aggressive. This wine is appealing and doing what needs right now.  Last tasted November 2024

Cerbaia is so very curious and aromatically candid though we really do have to think for a few minutes before we figure out what we have in the glass. The estate is present and accounted for, as Cerbaia, grippy and firm in the aromatics, if consciously and accurately so. Not exactly wide open as far as a 2019 goes, nor one whose graces hidden in the structure are quick to emerge. Yet another one of those structured sangiovese for the vintage, here from mid-slope Montalcino elevation within a short climb up the north facing rise up to the village. Drink 2026-2031.  Tasted November 2023

Col di Lamo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG A Diletta 2019

A special label for the estate and so very different as a sangiovese than either the Annata or Riserva of 2019. There is no missing the vineyard and climate because a special kind of Machia Medditerranea exudes from out of the evergreen perfume. No confusion whatsoever and a quality but also demand of tannins that Riserva will here show. This Etichetta is a special wine and clearly represents a singular expression that could only be of itself.  Last tasted November 2024

“A Diletta,” dedicated to Giovanna Neri’s daughter and a Brunello of one vineyard only two hectares in size. The fruit is indeed richer, deeper and in a way more vibrant than the Annata but it’s also equipped with finer tannins that stand up to the fleshiness of the sangiovese. There is also more wood involved and that aspect will need a few years to melt, settle and resolve. Could be five or more before that work is finished. This carries a feeling that is usually one from Riserva conceived Brunello so that should give you an idea of where it is and where it will go. Milk chocolate on the finish. Drink 2025-2030.  Tasted November 2023

Cortonesi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Poggiarelli 2019

Vigna, not Riserva, an extra year in bottle, off the main eastern north-south Montalcino road svolta to Poggiarelli surrounded by bosco with the Orcia Valley laid further southeast below. A micro-climate like no other in Montalcino, warm yet always breathing because of the forest, elevation, orientation and angles it holds. Or bends which does well to describe single vineyard sangiovese, a wine so well composed, fortified and structured it will take decades to unwind. Drinking after five years and for 10 more after that is recommended but this could very well be a two decade Brunello di Montalcino. Drink 2027-2037.  Tasted November 2024

Fanti Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vigna Vallocchio 2019

High level perfumes and the interior chew of sangiovese make for a mix of unique expressiveness, giddy curiosity and friendly fun from this single vineyard Brunello. So much flavour, texture and integration of parts made exclusively for each other. A 2019 of feeling, generosity and yet seemingly readier than many. Take full advantage of its charms in the next three years.  Last tasted November 2024

Vallocchio the vineyard is a prized hillside block and expectation calls for excitement ahead of a taste, if also because the vintage should likely deliver top quality fruit. That it does, but also supplies a structural set more dubitable and serious from Valocchio for ’19. A verticality imagined as statuesque and so curious because many Brunelli of the vintage are ones of deep fruit impression, yet this is clearly not. There is austerity and trenchant intendment from Fanti, not entirely out of character but it shows that the family really wanted to make a serious sangiovese of longevity from and for the vintage. In this regard the classicism and heritage are followed so be aware, stay alert and exercise some patience. Drink 2027-2039.  Tasted November 2023

Gaia Pieve Santa Restituta Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Rennina 2019

Serious, stoic and tightly compact Brunello for 2019 and one to spend plenty of time getting to know. Feels like a wine of agriculture from experts that measure, calculate and develop the master plan for using plots and blocks towards top probability. A measured response in this sangiovese, of one with its parts aligned and ducks in a row for the most linear and vertical of the ‘19s. Has moved but an iota since last year.  Tasted November 2024

For Angelo Gaja Rennina is akin to Barbaresco while Sugarille is like Barolo but this is Tuscany, the grape are sangiovese and so the wines are each their own entity. This Rennina is from a classic vintage when such a thing is rare these days, which means true località savour, cool herbal notes and wood that does not obfuscate Rennina’s reality. A pied de cuve alcoholic fermentation, followed by a week or two (as in 2019) of malolactic fermentation, “to fix the poly-phenolics” explains winemaker Nicola Vaglini. This happens half and half in wood and steel but the former is preferred to fix colour and stabilize the wine. Tonneaux is very much involved and bâtonnage has created an emulsified, filled in mid palate but overall the expression is from a mix that works empirically out of a sense of place. A richness and an impeccably dressed quality about this Brunello but it’s the more grounded and accessible of the two. You really do have to appreciate the freshness of the sangiovese. Feels warm on the finish which is the tannin speaking so allow two to three years for Rennina to find its calm. After that it should linger for 10 more without really changing much at all, with thanks to its terrific tension. Should also outlast Sugarille because it’s more elastic. Drink 2025-2035.  Tasted November 2023

With Sofia Gorelli and Gigliola Giannetti – Le Potazzine

Le Potazzine Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2019

Top vintage, a year later with a small amount of settling, still nervy and of an energy that will take many more years to relent. Crispy for the vintage and characterized by the same Potazzinese acidity and local balsamico that can’t be described like any other sangiovese. When acidity resides in the 6.5 g/L TA on average and you consider position, soil, exposition and elevation – it all adds up to one essential answer. Sapidity. These are some of the most sapid wines in Montalcino. This is the ultimate truth of Le Potazzine.  Last tasted November 2024

A vintage Gigliola Giannetti says was simply “regolare.” Thank goodness because in these days that sort of respite is increasingly rarer and rarer. Which means that fruit and phenolic ripeness are just about as good as it gets, never a 10 out of ten because what is that, but this gets close. Also a sangiovese of concentration, full and substantial amplitude, while clearly built with some stuffing that certifies its appellative, cultural and heritage status. What you won’t quite find in ’17 and ’18 but surely will out of this ’19 is succulence as a by-product of varied fruits and acidities. This precocious Brunello will not quit, comes at the palate in waves and yet the Potazzine perfume pervades and outlasts all else. As fine as there has ever been bottled from this estate. Seems a shame to open and consume a bottle this young but how to stay away? There is no fault in wanting just a sip today. The sangiovese epitome of forbidden fruit. Drink 2025-2036.  Tasted November 2023

Mastrojanni Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vigna Schiena d’Asino 2019

There are notes off the top not necessarily typical of the vintage, like blood orange and fresh roses but they are not unusual for this estate’s Vigna wine. Pure sangiovese to be sure and high acid as well. These are aspects of honesty and credibility to allow the wine to speak in clear, unequivocal and essential Brunello terms.  Last tasted November 2024

Top parcel for Mastrojanni on two adjacent slopes in declension from a shared ridge between with 360-390m of elevation. One faces southeast and the other southwest, planted together in 1975. Just about 45 years of age and in 2019 picking was on October the 2nd. Sees 42 months in 16hL Allier barrels though you’d never know it because the French wood is so beautifully integrated. Surely herbal, brushy and balsamic on the nose but that is just a fraction of the generosity and the complexity this Vigna (or in a sense Vigne) Brunello is wanting to give. Crunchy sangiovese is just this type and if it’s not yours then you may not be paying attention. A serious glass of Brunello here, layered with variegate stony terroir feels and fruit captured in its veritable essence. Vigna Schiena d’Asino is one of the wines that define the vintage, especially for the southern reaches of Montalcino. Those who choose to afford a bottle should purchase at least two because the temptation is real and one may just have to be sacrificed early to see what all this fuss is about. Drink 2026-2038.  Tasted January 2024

Ridolfi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2019

Notably higher in concentration and yet you just can’t shake that Ridolfi style, here exaggerated as compared to other Brunello tasted, including ’15, ’16, ’17 and ’20. More volume, both in aromas and mouthfeel, increased sapidity and tang, elevated volatility and that can’t miss roasted vegetable twang. More serious as a wine, a sangiovese so specific to the estate and a can’t miss prospect for Brunello di Montalcino that will not be confused with any other.  Last tasted November 2024

Brunello from a cooler Montalcino sector and always a savoury one, with more verdancy in brush and evergreen than many. A bit of stem sensation as well, some variegation in the fruit but also the tannin. Crunchy sangiovese, plenty of buzz and energy, then real length. That is a traditional Brunello’s strength. Drink 2026-2032.  Tasted November 2023

Terre Nere Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2019

Terre Nere Campigli Vallone farms 10 hectares of vineyards in the southeast part of Montalcino near Castelnuovo dell’Abate, on the hill past Castello di Vallone, purchased in 1995 by Pasquale Vallone, along with the owner of Altesino. The Brunello comes from a warm vintage, not unlike the following 2020, yet more structured and also closed by comparison. This is something that more than a handful of 2019 Brunello are want to show because the vintage should rightly make it so and Terre Nere really finds the season’s winning formula. A spiced, tightly wound, chalky and layered sangovese, big to be sure (at 15 percent alcohol) and a wine that really attracts your attention. Plenty of wood as well and it will integrate with some more time so that the spicy chocolate dissipates and all the parts come together. Drink 2025-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Val di Suga Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Vigna Spuntali 2019

First vintage for the Vigna Spuntali as a single cru Brunello was 2008 and from 2019 there is no mistaking the western Montalcino Macchia Mediterranea character. Evergreen, specifically pine with resins running and spices piquing through the entirety of the wine. That and a scrape of orange for citrus spreading through. It’s all so obvious!  Last tasted November 2024

Crunchy Vigna Spuntali from the southwest slope, a place of Mediterranean fauna, especially olive trees and Ginestra. Sols are sandstone and harder Pietraforte that deal in grapes that are spicy, with notes of orange candy and relatively softer tannins. Spuntali exists somewhere on a line between Vigna del Lago and Poggio al Granchio or maybe it is better viewed as a Brunello that combines the best of those other two worlds. Plenty of substantial fruit, more than notable wood, spice and seasoning but also great energy and focus. This Brunello is alive with the season and the fruit it was blessed to provide. There is a bleed of sanguinity but also lift from really high acidity. A cooler collection of sangiovese selected it would seem to result in a 2019 that both rises high and then seeks patience for time. This may just be the pearl in Val di Suga’s oyster and that of its wisdom. Hard not to notice the evergreen on the finish, typical of heavily forested western Montalcino and the always present mint at the finale. Drink 2027-2037.  Tasted November 2023

With Winemaker Federico Radi – Biondi-Santi

Biondi-Santi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2018

A season of many rains, every day in the early months, pushing so much vegetative growth leading the team to do quite a bit of clipping through the spring and summer. An average of nearly 600mm through the four main vineyards, of Greppo (653), Pievecchia, Pieri and Scarnacuoia. Rain again in September, sometimes heavy, with more humidity than usual and thus a scary prospect. Big berries, thin skins and danger. Required a heavy selection, a reduction of 40 percent, only cleanest bunches used. This is last vintage ahead of the beginning of regenerative agriculture that began in 2019. Started the pick on the 1st, through to the 15th, then off and on through to the 27th. An accumulation of 100mm of rain, no sleep, lots of stress and thankfully the Tramontana wind showed up, lowered the temps, dried out the vines and allowed for the final stages of the harvest to happen. The result? Levity, finesse of tannins and a lower structured wine than most Biondi-Santi, alcohol at 13.26, pulpy and high in acidity. Delicate extraction means a nobility in the tannins and a savoury aromatic quality, tomato and leaves, tarragon and freshness. A throwback going back four decades but far less rustic, very elegant and soft, in part because of high pH. Not the most intense sangiovese, of flowers and fruits, sweetness of brush and commodity crops, already ready to be served. In bottle 18 months, fully settled and the Riserva to open while so many are in need of many years further in bottle. Drink 2024-2029.  Tasted November 2024

Terre Nere Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Capriolo 2018

The 2018 Vigna Capriolo is the current market release while ’19 requires further refinement in bottle. “A good and rainy season for us,” tells Francesca Vallone and it is always refreshing to hear a wine producer celebrate these things. A vintage that delivers restrained power, aromatic layers to peel away and a sense of where this wine was born. Serous like 2019 but more focused, less wood influence and a finer texture without that creamy interior. More chew and things to mull over, consider, ruminate and to discover. Fine Vigna-designate and styled Brunello indeed. Drink 2025-2031.  Tasted November 2024

Ridolfi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Mercatale 2017

A very different Brunello Riserva as compared to the ’15, ’16 and ’19, toastier and with a real roasted tomato and eggplant flavour. Tomato paste and leaf in aromas, red crayon, black (fennel) and cherry liquorice. Dry as a desert vintage makes for heat and concentration in sangiovese parched and peppery. Not sure Riserva should have been made in 2017 but thanks to a solid late first of September rain the possibility became a reality. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Canalicchio Di Sopra Brunello Di Montalcino DOCG 2016

More than obvious as to what kind of special vintage 2016 really is and Francesco Ripaccioli thinks the window is just now beginning to open. Light on this Brunello’s future is being shed just as the reductive elements are falling away. Philanthropy and layers of Canalicchio’s combined vineyard fruit are now expressed, one after the other. The home block stands above with its red citrus and crispy freshness.  Last tasted November 2024

A wine with a mind of its own and still in what Francesco Ripaccioli calls “a preserving state” because its anything but an extrovert. Give it enough agitation so that both character and charm are encouraged to emerge from out of this hard-nosed wine’s shell. Just the faintest note of scraped orange zest signals to a place (showing some affinity with Val di Suga’s Vigna del Lago) and yet this is made in a conservative slash reductive way, and so the wine is still so fresh and youthful. A wine with so much integrity and air is the thing to coax out what the wine is willing or rather will eventually be wanting to express. Nice piques and smacks of spice on the finish. Drink 2025-2031.  Tasted November 2023

Cortonesi Brunello Di Montalcino DOCG La Mannella 2016

The feeling first considered two years earlier that this ’16 La Mannella would be a 12 year Brunello seems corroborated right here, right now. Settled, speaking in the clearest northerly vernacular and as openly generous as it will ever be. Could reside in this space for two more years.  Last tasted November 2024

At La Mannella as you head east up the Montalcino hill the steep steppe of the northeastern slope is embedded with river stones. This makes for more energy in residual effect than the other ‘16s tasted side by each and while those wines may live longer it is this La Mannella that is drinking beautifully right now. Tomasso Cortonesi is a bit critical of it but he’s always like this and as with any passionate winemaker the expectation is higher than that of anyone else. This is a great time and place for La Mannella 2016, spirited, rich and juicy, a real Montalcino succulence and length. Says Tomasso, “our goal is to exult the character of each single vineyard. We are not a modern winery.”  Tasted November 2023

La Mannella is Cortonesi’s home estate property on the flat just northeast and below the village of Montalcino where a warm and ideal vintage like 2016 could not help but raise near perfect fruit. Almost certainly an 8.5 out of ten ripeness that comes equipped with some of Montalcino’s finest tannins of well, forever. This 2016 Brunello would have been austere and crusty up until let’s say 12-15 months ago and is just now beginning to express its sangiovese in opening bloom. The triangle is traced with ease today, from fruit through acidity and tannin, now cycling through whereas before the movements would have been up and down, linear and retraceable. There is only forward if circular motion now and in the winter of 2023 this will be absolutely singing, continuing for four to six more after that. Drink 2023-2028.  Tasted December 2022

Le Chiuse Brunello Di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Diecianni 2016

Just beginning to shed its barrel weight, integrate that spice and see the smallest, most concentrated vineyard berries bursting of their fruit. The vintage is primed and near perfect for a Le Chiuse Riserva and who could not have a taste without thinking about the history and genetic transference of the place.  Last tasted November 2024

Never overstate the Lorenzo Magnelli way of crafting Riserva, that is by aging in cask longer than not just the average, but indeed all others. His Le Chiuse Diecianni carries, drifts and gifts the most succulence whilst exhibiting a spice force to ignite the most sensation and emotion. A veritable melting pot of a sangiovese, complexities bound and wound, circulating throughout the wine’s coefficient of existential and elementary positions. These are the smallest of berries picked to forge what only Riserva can, to be cool, mineral licked, ethereal. Already exhibiting fruit purity and also density for a look at what two decades forward will come from this finest of Brunello wines. Drink 2024-2037.  Tasted November 2021

Ridolfi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Mercatale 2016

Considered a top Riserva vintage and this Mercatale has done well to maintain freshness and sapidity, though secondary character is just around the bend. Crisp, herbal, crunchy and herbaceous. Not balsamico, nor is it soft and easy. There is strength and a grittiness, with wood spice everywhere and finally grippy tannins. Does not dry out, neither does it choose to relent. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Le Chiuse Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Diecianni 2015

In a sea of 2019 Riserva there is only one outlier and it can’t be missed for so many reasons. First and most obvious is its 2015 vintage but the question is why? The answer is simple really. This producer holds Riserva back for 10 years, releasing them four to five years after everyone else and no one copies the practice. It is his and his alone. That is a sign of ultimate respect and this being Brunello the philanthropy of aging for us, to deliver a vintage ready to drink, to be the beneficiaries of such an action – well that says everything. The ’15 is indeed settled and ready, integrated, suave and supple, naturally sweet, measured and calculated. The epitome of pure sangiovese, varietal incarnate, an expression of a single farm and a connection to its maker. An extension of ethic and an opus quietly executed. No fanfare, no banners, no social media campaign. Just a pour of a great wine. A top expression of Brunello di Montalcino Riserva. And yet not this winery’s finest ever, but oh so close. Drink 2024-2032.  Tasted November 2024

Le Potazzine Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2015

Incredible life in the Potazzine Riserva 2015, great freshness and there should be no surprise because the acidity of this place is amongst the finest in all of Montalcino. The minimum time to wait to drink a Potazzine Riserva is eight years (from release) and so the peak is has arrived with at least four more years left in this state.  Last tasted November 2024

Twice the perfume and all the concentration from Riserva, not a surprise nor should it be unusual to think such a thought because is this not the intention and perchance the goal for this level of Montalcinese appellative wine at Le Potazzine? Feel the glycerin on the palate to mix with über fresh red fruits in swaths, swirls and layers. Yet the aging is not finished, not yet and some unresolved aspects of the how and what that put this wine together need to evolve, mature and settle. Could be a few years before this all comes about but that’s part of the exercise and expectation. There are some wild and exciting flavours in Riserva to the extent that time is the action out of which beauty will become the just result. Drink 2025-2037.  Tasted November 2023

Ridolfi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Mercatale 2015

Of the four sangiovese in this ’15-19 (minus ’18) vertical there is only one showing secondary character and this is the one. Consistent with the following three Riserva vintages, wood very much in charge and now paint can with V.A. joining the herbaceous savoury and liquorice notes. A certain style to be sure and one that expects the Botti and barriques to smooth over, silken and elasticize the fruit. It dominates more than that and still needs some to resolve. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Tenuta Nuova 2010

Just 13-14 years ago but truthfully a Tenuta Nuova from another era, though not in every way. Namely in the extraction, the quality of the tannins and the interaction of the acidity with the kind of fruit that came in at that time. Giacomo Neri sees the current 2020 vintage as a having quite a bit in common with 2010 but again, the structural parts were approached, developed and effected in a different way. All is still very much in play, sparked with energy and vitality, though clearly secondary now. Silky smooth, so easy going down and just about as suave and chic as a Brunello of this age is going to be. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Col d’Orcia Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2010

Approaching 14 years of age and sharp – really sharp. Not exactly freshness defined but an argument could be made to say this is a wine at full peak performance. A special and spacial plateau achieved with room to roam for another two or three years. After that there will be a low and slow decline. Why wait?  Last tasted November 2024

Brunello at 10 years is like the Rosso in advance and then not at all. The fruit aromas are all skin, scraped, studded and seasoned. You can feel how special the vintage phenols were and continue to be, now in their twilight of first stage freshness. It may be remembered as a vintage less than eventful but you can also make note of what must have been great bold bitters and demanding skeletal framing that kept pleasure down. Rising now, flesh in pulse and equitable tacit celebration. Heady and big Brunello from a vintage gone long on stuffing. Drink 2020-2030.  Last tasted February 2020

Largesse and a firmess of being as per the house style are rampant in Col D’Orcia’s 2010, a wine that reminds me of 1998 and 2000. A wine that will seem lean, mean and terrifying in its youth but will prove everyone wrong when it hits the 12-15 year stride. This is a monster bringing leather and chocolate to the table. It is nearly unapproachable at the present time but you can imagine and embrace the possibility of potential. Drink 2020-2035.  Tasted September 2016

Col d’Orcia Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2000

A hot vintage and a sangiovese from another time and place, a bygone era but this wine is far from gone. Making Brunello di Montalcino is a four-way street with fruit submitting to acidity on its right, acidity to tannin and tannin to a mix of climate and terroir. The 2000 season may have been a warm one but this acidity has been preserved. You could fast-forward to 2017 and a similar situation would occur but again, acidity could be captured and kept. This may tell us how 2017 might show when tasted in 2041 Well, “it’s been a long time comin’, it’s goin’ to be a long time gone.” Drink 2024-2026.  Tasted November 2024

Biondi-Santi Riserva 1997

Biondi-Santi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 1997

One of hottest and driest vintages that seems to be the era launching point for such seasons between then and now. That includes 2003 and most recently 2017 but the question is how has this fared through the course of its aging over 27 years? The answer is incredibly well when so many Tuscan ‘97s have gotten old. The structural integrity is still solid, the acidity very much in place, the alcohol at 14 per cent leaving a warming sensation on the palate. No tannin to speak of, faint caramelization, orange, cinnamon and other spice. The energy is alive though the fruit is no longer what it would have been but other ethereal elements have replaced and offer new meaning. Still very much a true to territory sangiovese and fresher than most 1997s you are ver going to taste. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Col d’Orcia Brunello Di Montalcino Riserva DOCG Poggio Al Vento 1990

In a vertical of 1980 through to 2020 on the 0’s it has to be 1990 that would be the most highly anticipated vintage of the five. How could the great one known for the promise of longevity not steal the show? Or seduce the senses and instigate imagination which this bottle does but to be fair the empirical proof comes clear as fact more than anything to do with fantasy. Truth shows 1990 to be in perfect shape, taut and fine, acidity twitching, style singular and dress sharp. An ideal rendition of the local balsamico is played while doubters are expunged for thinking sangiovese is merely but a rustic grape. As for drinking well 34 years after the vintage, well her is your proof. The conspiracy is one of producer and place for an expression of the grape.  Last tasted November 2024

Sometimes a vintage of great repute and universal declaration does live up to its billing. And yet this from a time when the declarers knew a thing or two about soothsaying declarations. Thirty years and no great movement save for a transfer to the ethereal, the zeitgeist and the Italian version of said realm. No sully and all clarity with a marbling of strength, as in petrified balsamico and bitter chocolate made sweet by a powerful tempering. Tannins still shot out of cannons and leaving vapour trails of dried porcini dust. Drink 2020-2026.  Tasted February 2020

Col d’Orcia Brunello Di Montalcino DOCG 1980

The Count (Francesco Marone Cinzano) is quick to remind his guests that 1980 is truly from another era of Brunello in Montalcino. A time when winemaking techniques were so rustic and light years away from just 10 years later. This includes oenological methods of alcoholic and malolactic fermentations. This 1980 is pure balsamico, that is to say a forest-scented sangiovese with accents of old wood that determine the aromas and flavours, multiplied and extrapolated after 40-plus years in bottle. Sweetness of dried fruit and acidity do persist and prominently so. As far as older Col d’Orcia Brunello are concerned, this can surely hold its own against 1978 (Annata) and 1979 (Riserva).  Tasted November 2024

With Violante Gardini and Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Other wines tasted

Donatella Cinelli Colombini Leone Rosso 2021, Orcia DOC

Fattoria Del Colle Chianti Superiore DOCG 2022

A sangiovese from Fattoria del Colle vines, very specific to this place in the Orcia Valley, of full ripeness with sweet acidity and a yummy character. That feeling of fruit fresh-picked, fallen into the hand at the moment it’s plucked from the vine. A wine made from grapes chosen at their first important moment and sorted to show the best of the best. Hint of (black) cherry stone bitterness at the finish. Drink 2024-2026.  Tasted November 2024

Il Drago E Le 8 Colombe 2019, Toscana IGT

A VINTAGES wine in Ontario, to be released in the winter of 2025. Dedicated to Donatella’s husband and inclusive of sagrantino fruit off of vines given to the farm by Umbria’s Marco Caprai. Sangiovese with 20 percent each sagrantino and merlot. Strong, in balance and while not ready you can imagine that a property growing bamboo trees will see a softening of sangiovese and also sagrantino to effect quicker changes than say Umbria. Look to begin drinking this red blend of whole and full character sometime in late 2025.  Last tasted November 2024

Always the dichotomy, from a red blend both light on its feet and also with bite. Acids are really showing their teeth at this middle stage of development and ideal drinking window time. Definitely a “food wine,” especially for salumi arigianale and formaggi. A wine to drink before the big wines but at the higher end of the idiom.  Tasted November 2023

Dedicated to Violante Gardini’s father Carlo. A blend of 60 per cent sangiovese with (20 each) merlot and sagrantino, all grown at Fattoria del Colle in Treqaunda. The sagrantino are vines taken from Marco Caprai in Umbria. Brings the spiciness, adding to the verdancy and roundness of merlot, both to compliment the acidity and elegance of the sangiovese. A complete package, affectionately referred to as le ali della colomba, the wings of the dove and then, the teeth of the dragon. Perhaps papa was sometimes tough and sometimes gentle but truth is in a sea of women he’s the only man in the office and on the team. Always a solid and delicious red blend, satiating and satisfying. Drink 2022-2025.   Tasted June 2022

Il Poggione Moscadello di Montalcino DOCG Vino Frizzante 2023

A moscadello made in the old-school way, a sweet sparkling wine that had been the dessert choice of the nobles and while 10-15 wineries are still making the still version, none are making the fizz version today. Sweet but not too much so (at 120 g/L), finishing at 6.5 percent alcohol and light on its feet. Works ideally alongside Torta della Nonna, of custard, almonds and pine nuts. Just 8,000-9,000 bottles are made. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Le Potazzine Potazzine 2023, Toscana IGT

A solo sangiovese from one hectare at (420m) higher elevation raised 10-12 moths in only steel. Potazzine, “the chickadees” and while there no longer any young ones in the family, once a chickadee, always a chickadee. A challenging vintage because of Perenospera (downy mildew) with reduced yields but the quality remains high for this unoaked sangiovese. Fresh and crunchy, potential beginning to show how Rosso DOC might just be in this IGT’s future. Drink 2024-2026.  Tasted November 2024

Le Potazzine Potazzine 2022, Toscana IGT

Sangiovese 100 precent, one hectare of higher elevation at 420m raised 10-12 moths in only steel and called Potazzine, a.k.a. “the chickadees.” An easy vintage, warm and translated through sangiovese unfazed, unclouded and unencumbered by wood. This is fruit as it is meant to be, ripe and simplified. Already maturing so drink away. Drink 2024-2025.  Tasted November 2024

San Polo Rubio, Toscana IGT 2022

Regardless of the comparison between 2021 and 2022, in terms of warmth this comes across as a more developed vintage with the sangiovese, cabernet franc and merlot combining for quite a mouthful. Includes fruit grown at real elevation, upwards of 450m and the ruby-red Rubio delivers a metal-mineral punch. This with thanks to iron and schist-clay Galestro that brings the elements from soil to vine. Less acid than 2021 – but in a way more wine. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

San Polo Vignamasso Anfora 2022, Toscana IGT

A new wine for San Polo, sangiovese raised in amphorae and the results are no less than amazing. Aromatically sound, clean and pure, easy to understand, even easier to like. Silky and smooth like the Rosso di Montalcino if just a bit edgier and with a little bit of attitude. Hard to make any complaints or suggests there may be even the slightest fault. There just isn’t. Drink 2024-2026.  Tasted November 2024

Terre Nere Pociano 1863 Vino Biologico 2022, Rosso di Toscana IGT

The number 1863 is the position on the road and Pociano the name of the farm for a 100 percent sangiovese from outside the Montalcino territory, but the game is pretty much the same. Young vines (of five years), a natural ferment and the glou-glouest sangiovese you are ever going to taste. Comes from “sea” soil with lots of clay for juicy-peppery, almost gamay like red wine. Dangerously easy to drink. Drink 2024-2026.  Tasted November 2024

Terre Nere Ribelle 2022, Rosso di Toscana IGT

Ribelle è colui che si distingue, translated as, or better yet in reference to “the rebel is the one who recognizes the unjust law and breaks free from it,” from Ernst Jünger’s 1951 “The Rebel’s Treatise” on a democratic future. Free from the constraints of Italian appellative law and a territory where rules are rules, here is sangiovese from inside the Montalcino territory but also young vines. From two blocks, one called Vigna del Sasso, with some red clay in the soil but also the sandy Vigna del Fiume, from the same plots that feed the Rosso di Montalcino. Juicy and easy like the Pociano but here with a carbonic pulse, a slight CO2 on the palate and a pepperiness to boot. A chalky underbelly suggests a modicum of structure but once again the easy drinking style is duly noted. That said the 100 percent whole berry (natural) fermentation would explain the energetic buzz. Sangiovese as cru gamay. You know exactly who this will appeal to. Drink 2024-2026.  Tasted November 2024

Corte Pavone Merlot Sant’Antimo DOC Levante 2021

Not from the Loacker’s Corte Pavone estate but from southerly Montalcino in the Sant’Antimo area, where there is increased blanketing warmth and a vintage that made sure to back that up. Formidably this means rich, caky, fine-grained texture and tannin, no lack for acidity and a well made merlot no matter the location. Much higher acidity than expected which can often (and surprisingly) be a factor of vintage like 2017 and 2021, contrary to many beliefs. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Corte Pavone Le Veline di Pavone Extra Brut Metodo Classico Vino Spumante di Qualità Millesimato 2016

First vintage of the traditional method, 100 percent sangiovese sparkling was 2011, this now being the 6th, seven years spent on the lees. Still fresh and sharp though the years have obviously seen it able to accumulate some flesh and biscuits, mild gingered spice and the suggestion of crème brûlée. It’s actually a subtle and elegant bubble, balanced and even a little bit tannic. Hard to find anything better in Montalcino. Drink 2024-2027.  Tasted November 2024

Good to go!

godello

Montalcino, November 2024

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