2019 Tuscany Preview

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | MARCH 01, 2022

This preview article focuses on a number of new releases ahead of my comprehensive reports on coastal Tuscany and Chianti Classico scheduled for later this year. Most of the wines are from the 2019 vintage, which is revealing itself to be full of surprises, in the best sense of the term. A continued move towards more nuanced winemaking throughout Tuscany really comes through in the best of these wines. 

“We had a very cool spring in 2019 and almost as much rain as 2018,” Ornellaia and Masseto Estate Manager Axel Heinz relayed. “The biggest difference between the two years is that summer was much drier in 2019. We saw good diurnal shifts leading up to what was a late harvest. For example, we did not have to rush to pick the Merlots, as we often do. Harvest was a week later than 2018.”