Monday November 18, 2002, I attended a tasting put on my the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino. I did this purely on the educational behalf of fellow participants on the slow travel board. I put my health and well being at risk in tasting approximately 80 wines. I am a trained professional, do not attempt this at home. Dangers include, but are not limited to: wine stains on my new jacket that I was wearing at the tasting, a sore elbow from doing so much lifting, an intense desire to buy even more Brunello, teeth the color of a black grape, an intense desire to return to Montalcino.
The 1997 vintage of Brunello is currently in the market and is rapidly disappearing. If you live in New York, or are in one of the states that allows out of state wine shipments, go online to Zachys.com, and look at their 97 Brunello sale. They have a few wines that are superb values. The sale runs for another week. I bought Argiano for less than you can get it for now in Montalcino. But the 97âs are just about history and in any case, most need 5 to 10 years of age.
There are many 2000 Rosso available and some 1999âs. The 2001âs will show up shortly. These wines are spotty. 2000 was a very difficult year and the wines range from gosh awful to great. It all depends. In general, I would look for some of the remaining 1999âs in Rosso and then to wait for the 2001 vintage to appear next spring. The best of the 2001 Rosso are superb bottles well worth drinking now or aging. In fact one of my favorite wines of the day was Pertimali Rosso 2001. It was in my personal top 10 of all the wines tasted. It should retail for under $30.00. But 2001 has great, good wines and some not so good wines. Wineries to the northeast part of Montalcino tended to be a little better in 2001, wines to the southwest a little better in 1999.
After the new year, wineries will begin to offer their 1997 Riservas. Just be sure to realize that a riserva 97 may or may not be better than a particular wineries regular 1997. For example, Il Poggione 1997 was a revelation. It is spicy, lean, full bodied, earthy, loaded with charm and a real bargain at 27 Euro in Montalcino. Its around $65 over here. The riserva is just not as good. Its so oaked that a lot of the charm of the ânormaleâ is lost without anything being added by all that oak. I would save the bucks and find a bottle of the 97 is still available.
Remember that most of these wines wonât even be released until after the first of the year and wonât show up in US markets till spring or later. I have no pricing information. On to the wines:
My favorites!
In no particular order (actually its in approximate tasting order but I did go back to several tables more than once just to assure myself of the high quality of the wines involved! I mean I tasted the Costanti 97 Riserva 4 times just to make sure I would not exaggerate to you about how good it was!), here are my absolute favorite wines.
Costanti 1997 Brunello Riserva- silky smooth, not over the top big or tannic. This is perfection in Brunello. It is multi layered, complex, elegant and clear as a bell. To me itâs the Placido Domingo of Brunello: lyrical, beautiful and heart moving, not the most powerful and loud wine of the vintage. It will retail for over $100 a bottle in the US and probably for over 50 Euro and is well worth it. Itâs a once in a lifetime Brunello experience. In fact, it is as good a wine as I have ever had. Its that close to perfection.
Val Di Cava 97 Riserva Single Vineyard Madonna del Piave- Huge huge huge and rich. Very concentrated with layers of red fruit flavors- raspberry, current, strawberries. Incredible load of tannin in the finish but only after you taste all that fruit. Big and serious wine. Needs loads of bottle age.
Ciacci Piccolomoni dâAragona 97 Riserva- save up and make nice with your local wine merchant. This is one of the great wines ever from Brunello. It is a contrast to the Costanti in that is much more powerful. It is Pavarotti to the Costantiâs Domingo.
2000 Fabius- 100% syrah from the St Antimo area. Incredible spicy and lush wine, not over oaked at all. This was a barrel sample. Spicy, coffee flavors with just a touch of vanilla. Very rich. Not a Brunello, but what a wine from Ciacci
Val di Cava 2001 Rosso- rich round and soft. This is a full on Brunello experience at a Rosso price.
Silvio Nardi 98 Manachiara Single Vineyard- Huge, rich, soft with lots of black fruit- black berries, black currents, violets. Very spicy, especially for a 98.
Fuligni 1997 Riserva- concentrated, full bodied, soft yet powerful. The proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove.
Pertimali 2001 Rosso- this is a wine to wait for and to buy a lot of. Its incredible now and will age for 10 years. Very full bodied with spicy dark flavors. Earthy, spicy and loaded with sangiovese character. Better than most of the 98 Brunello.
Pertimali 1998 Brunello- Hard and tight at present, it a wine to age from the 98 vintage. Very rich fruit abounds under the substantial tannins. Lots of red fruit with a vertical mouthfeel. One of the 2 or 3 best 98âs
Le Chiuse 2001 Rosso- Very full with ripe plum flavors. Deep, spicy, earthy in a style which screams out for aging. This is a sleeper. The family has been farming 6 hectare that they inherited from the sister of the original Biondi Santi estate. The wife/co owner is the daughter of the niece of the original count Biondi Santi who created the modern Brunello in the 1800âs. A true labor of love.
Le Chiuse 1998 Brunello- very full of flavor with soft fruit components and a gentle mouthfeel. Needs some time, maybe 2-3 years after release to show fully. Better than many a 1997 Brunello. Has a slightly bramble/zinfandel like character that I love. A Brunello for lovers of Sagrantino di Montefalco and Amarone, not in its being so alcoholic but in its concentrated berry flavor.
Le Chiuse 1997 Riserva- All of a sudden this wine has shot to the heights of my favorite 97âs. Very firm, rich and huge with lots of depth and a very layered mouth feel. This is a wine I hated to spit. You can hold it in your mouth for minutes at a sip and just pick out flavor and texture after flavor and texture. Hugely tannic but a perfect example of ripe tannins, not harsh and green. Spicy and creamy. Its not quite a Pavarotti or a Domingo but more like a younger tenor, say Carl Tanner: brash, powerful, loving life and not yet knowing what he is capable of.
The Le Chiuse estate was the big find of the tasting. Itâs a husband and wife team having the luxury of having old vines. Much of the vineyard is 18 or so years old while they have been replanting some of the property.
The best of the rest. These are wines to buy but they are not quite as exciting as the wines above:
Ciacchi Piccolomini 98 Brunello- very ripe and sweet, fruit forward in style. Pretty spectacular. Could have been in the upper portion of my list or at the top of the lower portion. Has the full character of the Piccolomini style but just not as spectacular as the rest of their wines.
Capanna 98 Brunello- rich and creamy mouth feel, tannic but lots of fruit. A little over made for the ripeness of the grapes.
Val di Cava 1998 Brunello- red berry, very round and soft. Excellent for a 98 but not quite as good as the Le Chiuse.
Uccelleira 97 Riserva- not up the high standards of the Ciacci, Le Chiuse or Costanti, but a top notch wine none the less. Its in a not too flashy style that did not suit it well for a huge tasting like this. 2000 Rosso was high acid and spicy, with rich blackberry fruit in finish. Needs time. The 98 Brunello was big and hard, not flashy. It was plainly obvious that these wines are highly individualistic and really should be drunk on their own. I went back to them at the end of the tasting to try them again and liked them even more than the first time.
La Fortuna 98 Brunello Very full, nice wine. Traditional style. Lacking a little in concentration. Lots of spice with ripe black fruit. Their 2001 Rosso was ripe and rich, spicy and firm. This is the wine to look for. Extremely good.
Silvio Nardi Rosso 2000- serious style Rosso, one of the best 2000 Rosso I have had. Firm and tightly knot, very dark.
Fuligni 1998 Brunello- very sweet but a bit of lightness kept it from the top class. These were a little bit lower down the scale in my opinion. I would buy them on a wine list or if there were not any of the above wines available.
Mastrojanni 2000 Rosso and 1998 Brunello full bodied and vinuous, simple and approachable in a very traditional style. Lots of old botti flavor. Nice but not spectacular.
Collosorbo- Brunello 98, Riserva 97 and Rosso 2001 loads of very ripe fruit but just not firm and acidic enough to be balanced for me. Lots of folk like this wine, and I can see why. Itâs a case that they were more not my style than there was any problem with the wines. If you like soft, forward fat wines then you will probably like these a whole lot better than I did.
Costanti 98 Brunello- a little high acid but soft and nice. If I saw it in a restaurant I would order it if there were not another vintage of Costanti or something else that I liked better. Nice enough.
There were a huge number of wines that were nice enough but way too international in style for my tastes. While I would not hesitate to drink them, I donât see the point. They were all too wood dominated to really show the fruit. I donât believe they will lose the wood with age. In my memory and my tatting notes there was a dreary sameness to these wines. I found them soulless.
Banfi- weather it was the 1998 Castello Banfi Brunello, the Cum Laude, the Sumus or the Excelsior, all I could taste here was the wood. These wines would be painfully expensive for what they are. But if itâs the only Italian wine on a wine list go ahead and try one. Cum Laude, Sumus and Excelsior all have differing percentages of cab, merlot, syrah and sangiovese but are not distinctly different. I would love to be the guy who sells Banfi their oak!
Il Poggione 97 Riserva Poggio Antico 98 Brunello Il Poderina 98 Brunello Campogiovani 98 Brunello Campogiovanni 97 Riserva Carmigliano 98 Brunello Pian del Vigna 98 and 97 Brunello (Antinori) Capanna 98 Brunello Capanne Ricchi Brunello and Rosso Castello Romitoro Brunello and Rosso Friggiali 2001 Rosso, 1998 Brunello Donna Olga 2000 or 1999 Rosso, 1997 Brunello Corte Pavone 98 Brunello Fastelli 98 Brunello Togata 98 Brunello
All the above had a generic description in my notes: Too modern, too much wood and tannin, flabby. I would pass on all of these, there is just too much good stuff around. These are not bad wines, they are basically technically well made but very boring and basically the same wine. This is the downside of international style. Others at the tasting disagreed with me. But the two people at the tasting whose palates I respected, Howard, wine buyer from Esca and my wine geek buddy Todd Ruby, who reps Marc di Graziaâs wines, both agreed that there were too many âme too winesâ.
There were a couple of wines I would actually stay away from.
Poggio Antico 97 Riserva- off nose Talenti- Rosso 2001, 98 Brunello, 97 Riserva- flabby and stinky noses San Georgio- I donât know what the hell happened here but these are amongst the worst wines I have ever tasted. Podere Brizio- not very good Corte Pavone 97 Riserva, mercaptain problems (rotten egg smell)
If life is an opera by Puccini... I want to be Calaf!
Posts: 4612 | Location: Casa del Fenicottero Rosa, Silver Spring, MD USA | Registered: 06 August 2002
I just recieved an e-mail from www.artisanideas.com they have some new books that look great. Borolo,Brunello,Amarone(whole books about each wine) and a guide to the vineyards in piedmont. RR
Posts: 6519 | Location: Culver City, CA, USA | Registered: 08 November 2002
Thanks for the great link Robert! We actually picked up one of the books listed last time we were at Enoteca La Fortezza in Montalcino. It's Brunello and other wines of Montalcino- Guide to the Territory by Emanuele Pellucci.
It gives a good introduction to the wines of area as well as some local history. I'd call it Brunello 101.
Dean, I can't begin to express my gratitude for your selflessness in doing this tasting for us! Your commitment to our well being is humbling. I've made a note of the ones that intrigued me and I'm on my way out the door to the wine stores. I think I'll hit the local Italian market first. They have an knack for bringing in a case here and a case there of some pretty interesting wines. And, since wine is one of the "staples", they still charge grocery store prices instead of wine shop prices.
Right now it looks like we will be in Montalcino July 26 to August 1 and then in Torre del Lago for the Puccini Festival (Opera). Anyone interested in meeting up, let me know. We will also be at Umbria Jazz as well. But a little Brunello tasting for a group of Slow Travel friends would be pretty fun!
If life is an opera by Puccini... I want to be Calaf!
Posts: 4612 | Location: Casa del Fenicottero Rosa, Silver Spring, MD USA | Registered: 06 August 2002
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