Montalcino: The Great 2015 Brunellos & More

BY IAN D'AGATA | APRIL 02, 2020

Wine lovers everywhere are in for a real treat with Montalcino’s latest releases. The 2015 Brunellos are some of the best in recent memory, while the 2018 Rossos are wonderfully fresh and inviting. A handful of luscious Moscadellos round out the wines featured in this report.

With the tragic outbreak of COVID-19 taking place right now, the words “what a difference a year makes” never rang more true. On a much brighter note, those same words apply perfectly to the latest releases from Montalcino: a year really does make a big difference. Wines offered in early 2019 – such as the often alcoholically top-heavy and hot 2017 Rossos and the generally thinnish 2014 Brunellos – failed to generate much enthusiasm. Only some excellent 2013 Brunello Riservas were truly worth getting excited about. By contrast, in early 2020, winery owners and industry pros were ready to sound the trumpets, beat the drums and break out the bubbly. Without doubt, the much happier and more optimistic environment (at that point, the COVID-19 pandemic had not yet hit everyone hard) was brought about by the indisputable high quality of Montalcino’s new wines: the suave and deep 2015 Brunellos, the ultra-fresh and super-delicious 2018 Rossos, and even the occasional Moscadello, Montalcino’s sweet wine made from Moscato Bianco.

A late summer afternoon at the Salvioni farmhouse.

There is so much to say about Montalcino and its wines this year that it is easy to forget something. So I’ll keep it simple and give my point-by-point thoughts on Montalcino:

1. Simply put, 2015 is a great Brunello vintage, easily one of the top eight or ten Brunello vintages of all time. That statement is especially true if one believes the single most important parameter by which to judge a vintage is overall quality across the production zone. In that light, I simply do not recall ever tasting as many outstanding young Brunellos as I did this year. The real trump card of the 2015 Brunellos is their rather magical balance: there are very few thin, tart, angular, alcohol-heavy, fruit-challenged or unpleasantly tannic wines among them. Most of the 2015 Brunellos are characterized by suave, voluptuous mouthfeels, bordering on the opulent, but with very good, juicy acidities that nicely lift and carry the velvety ripe flavors. And while the 2015 Brunellos are not the most perfumed I have memory of, unlike other “hot” recent vintages they do offer (for the most part) enough of the precise, typical and lifted Sangiovese aromas usually associated with cooler years.

Andrea Costanti looking over his property.

2. Therefore, there are two specific parameters, perfume and acidity, that really contribute to uniqueness of these wines and set them apart from those of other recent well-regarded Brunello vintages. While admittedly not exceptionally perfumed (in particular, some wines from the slopes in the south of the appellation can show compressed aromatics), they differ from those of other similarly warm (or warmer) vintages (such as 1997, 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2009) because almost all the 2015s, while initially slightly silent in the glass, tend to blossom with aeration to reveal above-average lift (something that was totally absent in the wines of 1997 or 2003, for example). In fact, the 2015 Brunellos really do benefit, even more so than other young Brunello vintages, from plenty of air in order to show all they have to offer (I suggest decanting them well ahead of serving). And despite the hot days of summer, readers will find there are neither too many wines marred by gritty tannins (as was the case in 1997, 2003 and 2007) nor too many overly soft, acid-challenged wines (such as some 2004s and many 2009s).