Buckle Your Seatbelts: 2019 Brunello and 2021 Rosso di Montalcino
BY ERIC GUIDO |
I’m happy to report that the current releases from Montalcino are an embarrassment of riches for collectors and fans of the appellation. My recent trip to the region included tastings of the newly minted and classic 2019 Brunellos, the high-energy and fruit-forward 2021 Rossos and a look back to many of the top 2016s, which I chose to include in this report for comparison to the 2019s. Placing these two fantastic years next to each other demonstrates that Montalcino continues to create world-class wines of the highest caliber and, in most cases, at reasonable price points.
Looking north from the high-elevation Uccelliera vineyards in Castelnuovo dell’Abate.
A Return to Classicism: 2019 Brunello di Montalcino
Producers and consumers have all been looking forward to the release of the 2019 vintage with great anticipation. For the past three years, I’ve been tasting the wines from barrel and watching their slow evolution with great satisfaction, especially as the wines from the arid 2017 and wet and warm 2018 vintages showed the challenges of their respective growing seasons. To be clear, both years had their high points and successful wines, but overall, the region suffered. That’s the first point in the corner of the 2019 vintage; this is a year where the entire region excelled, from southwest to east and northeast to west. Frankly stated, finding a 2019 that doesn’t show remarkable balance, vivid fruit and freshness is a difficult task. In my opinion, this is always a mark of a great year. The highs are exceptionally high, and the lows are few and far between. What’s more, this is a year where many lesser wines excelled, making picking out a 2019 Brunello a relatively easy affair.
Thinking back to those barrel tastings mentioned above puts the importance of this vintage into context. One of the pros of a wine like Brunello di Montalcino is its late release, meaning that each year I taste, analyze and compare at least four vintages while tasting with producers. Winemakers in Montalcino have been very excited about what's in barrel for the last few years. The 2019 vintage stood out to them immediately; this is the last genuinely balanced year in the previous seven vintages (more on that later). Then there’s 2020, an elegant year with massive concentration and high alcohol that produced wines that barely hold onto balance. Yet a few standouts succeed. Finally, 2021 presents a marriage of the previous two, with rich, intense fruit, elegance and balanced tannic structures. Frequently, in conversations, producers speculate as to which of these three vintages would ultimately produce the best wines, yet for me, there was never any doubt that while 2021 will be an exciting year to follow (just look at the Rosso’s included in this article) and 2020 will be suave and elegant, that 2019 comes out on top, for its utter harmony. In the end, 2019 provides a blending of power and elegance in a way seldom seen while maintaining a lovely balance of acidity and structure.
Giacomo Bartolommei of Caprili stated, “The 2019 is crunchy. Everything was easy during this vintage, and we had no difficulties in the vineyards and the cellar.” Crunchy is a word I often hear associated with the 2019s, which I believe fits the wines perfectly. Vintage comparisons often get thrown around regarding 2019, with most producers relating it to a perfect combination of either 2015 and 2016 or 2010 and 2015. For me, the similarities to 2016 are clear as day, but what 2019 adds to the dark fruit and radiance of 2016 is energy and that crunchiness to the tannins mentioned above. I believe the magic is in their acidity because even as the wines firm up through the finish, they leave a freshness and mouth-watering quality that adds a crunchy sensation to the tannins.
The cellar at Le
Ragnaie.
