By Bruce Sanderson | Wine Spectator | For the June 30, 2024 Issue
The latest vintage from Montalcino delivers pure Sangiovese of power and grace
“There was a big crop in 2019, and you needed to manage the vineyards and pay attention to the refining of the wine to achieve quality,” Argiano CEO Bernardino Sani told me last November, as we stood in the estate’s Vigna del Suolo vineyard alongside vineyard manager Francesco Monari.
For that reason, Sani and Monari had green-harvested the vineyard a month in advance, from the second half of May until early June, anticipating that the vines would adjust better to the sun and heat. They also left more leaves to protect the grapes from sunburn.
“At the end of August, there was a heat wave and after that the grapes were suffering a little dryness,” Sani explained to me at the time. “So we decided not to harvest but to wait for the rain, as the leaves were still very active—and indeed it rained in mid-September, and this completely changed the situation. The grapes reacted very well, and we were able to harvest the last week of September until mid-October high quality Sangiovese.”
This foresight earned Argiano one of the highest-rated wines of the vintage, the sleek Brunello di Montalcino Vigna del Suolo 2019 (98 points, $285), with iron, mineral and wild herb flavors framing a core of cherry and raspberry fruit.
The other top-scoring Brunello to date is the complex Podere Salicutti Brunello di Montalcino Piaggione 2019 (98, $126), an alluring and harmonious red featuring fresh, ripe cherry, strawberry, rose and mineral flavors allied to a silky texture and beautifully integrated structure.
Although managing the crop was key for the best outcome in 2019, this is an exciting vintage regardless of the effort demanded of vintners. The year sits near the top of a string of excellent harvests over the past decade. In terms of overall quality, I rate the 2019 vintage at 98 points, placing it in a similar league as the 2010s and 2015s, while being just shy of the stellar 2016s. The 2012 and 2013 harvests round out this successful grouping of classic-rated vintages for Tuscany’s premier region.
The best 2019s deliver a wealth of pure cherry, strawberry, raspberry and occasionally plum fruit, gaining complexity and depth from details of rose, rose hip, hibiscus, orange peel, iron and mineral, along with wild herb and savory notes. The wines range from racy to dense, combining elegance, poise and harmony with muscle and power. “A great vintage needs elegance and power,” says Francesco Ripaccioli, whose family owns Canalicchio di Sopra. “2019 has a little of both.”
Other top wines from the vintage include Castello Romitorio’s stylish and graceful Brunello di Montalcino 2019 (97, $83), Le Chiuse’s racy, linear and energetic Brunello di Montalcino 2019 (97, $113), Lisini’s savory and succulent Brunello di Montalcino 2019 (97, $70), Siro Pacenti’s powerful yet balanced Brunello di Montalcino Pelagrilli 2019 (97, $60) and Valdicava’s Brunello di Montalcino Vigna Montosoli 2019 (97, $376), showing excellent intensity, breadth and depth. (The 2019 riservas will be released next January.)
“2019 was an excellent harvest for us,” recalls Giancarlo Pacenti, owner and winemaker at Siro Pacenti. “Pelagrilli is the area on the north side of the Montalcino hill around the winery, and the wine is produced with grapes that come from vineyards between 25 and 35 years old, known for fruit and freshness.”
There are a number of 2019s that display enticing fruit aromas and flavors yet lack the added complexity and structure of the top wines. Although charming and balanced, they are more open and even enjoyable now. This doesn’t mean, however, that they don’t show outstanding quality. In fact, all of the more than 100 Brunellos I reviewed this year from the 2019 vintage garnered scores of at least 90 points.
What makes the 2019 vintage for Brunello even more exciting is that there are beautiful wines from all parts of the Montalcino zone. Versions from the northwest and southwest areas that can sometimes be dense, chunky and even rustic reveal elegance and finesse.
Cellars at Canalicchio di Sopra delivered a classic-rated 2019 that’s rich yet structured.
Cellars at Canalicchio di Sopra delivered a classic-rated 2019 that’s rich yet structured.Castello Banfi’s Brunello di Montalcino 2019 (94, $80), for example, first impressed me with its gracefulness at a workshop I held in Verona last November. According to Banfi general manager Enrico Viglierchio, the estate has changed some of its Sangiovese trellising from cordon and spur training to the Guyot system and the alberello (head-training) method. In addition, the Banfi team has been aging its Brunello only in large casks of more neutral oak since 2016. Viglierchio explained that they’re now benefiting from more than 30 years of knowledge gained in both the vineyard and the cellar.
La Fiorita, an estate owned primarily by American Natalie Oliveros, fields three classic-scoring Brunellos this year, two 2019s along with a 2018 riserva. The charming Brunello di Montalcino 2019 (95, $65), offering strawberry, raspberry and cherry flavors, is sourced from four estate vineyards located around the Montalcino zone, Collosorbo, Giardinello, La Fiorita and Pian Bossolino; the complex Brunello di Montalcino Fiore di NO 2019 (96, $130), which shows more savory notes of wild herbs and olive framing cherry and plum flavors, comes from “sweet spots” identified in three of the different vineyards; and the harmonious and expressive Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2018 (95, $130) is 100 percent from Pian Bossolino. All three wines were aged 36 months in large casks.
“In 2016, 2018 and 2019, we crafted three Brunellos: Brunello, riserva and Fiore di NO,” explains La Fiorita export director François Colas. “Tasting one vintage of all three wines always blows my taste buds as the composition is from the same vineyards, same grape, same aging, but the ‘assemblage’ is in different proportions—from 100 percent for the riserva to different levels for the rest. At the end, three very different wines.” La Fiorita, he adds, “does not make Brunello from Sangiovese, but the grape becomes the link between soils.”
The 2019 growing season was warm, but not hot, and there was a significant difference between the daytime and nighttime temperatures. There were good water reserves after 2018 and ample rainfall in April and May, as well as one day at the end of June. In mid-September, about 1.75 inches of rain refreshed the vines just before harvest.
Speaking of riservas, I also reviewed two dozen from the 2018 vintage this year. In general, they lack the charm of the 2018 annate and aren’t qualitatively better. They sometimes miss the elegance and purity of the vintage, with tough, astringent tannins, though the best hit the mark or deliver the added structure in a balanced way that should allow them to age.
For example, the San Giorgio Brunello di Montalcino Ugolforte Riserva 2018 (96, $150) is intense and elegant, with a dense matrix of tannins and vibrant acidity supporting its cherry, strawberry, iron and tobacco flavors, and the Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto 2018 (95, $370), a riserva in all but name, reveals a firm underlying structure that boosts its plum, cherry, eucalyptus and iron flavors, yielding terrific length and freshness.
The previously mentioned La Fiorita Riserva 2018 straddles the line between power and elegance, while La Serena’s expressive Brunello di Montalcino Gemini Riserva 2018 (95, $125) delivers flavors of cherry, currant, mushroom, eucalyptus, iron, sanguine and smoky autumn woods.
There’s plenty to choose from among the current crop of Brunellos available on the market. Although you’ll need to tread carefully if you are interested in the 2018 riservas, the newly released 2019s are phenomenal, while the vibrant and expressive 2018 annate are now drinking beautifully.
Bruce Sanderson’s Recommended Brunellos di Montalcino
Over 125 wines were tasted for this report. A free alphabetical list is available. WineSpectator.com members can access complete reviews for all wines tasted over the past year—including all 2019 Brunellos—using the online Wine Ratings search.
La Fiorita
Brunello di Montalcino Fiore di NO 2019
Score: 96 | $130
WS Review: Savory notes of wild herbs and olive frame cherry and plum flavors in this complex red, ending with sanguine and mineral accents. Balanced and solidly built, showing terrific length and energy.
La Fiorita
Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2018
Score: 95 | $130
WS Review: Aromatic and expressive, offering plum, cherry, leather and iron flavors, with accents of rose and woodsy underbrush. Straddles the line between power and elegance, with fine harmony.
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