2017 Brunello di Montalcino

The best way to understand any wine region is to get on the ground, hike the vineyards, trudge through the soils and watch as the sun rises or sets on the vines. On the day I was scheduled to taste with Francesco Ripaccioli at Canalicchio di Sopra, I trekked for roughly two miles north, down the hill from Montalcino at 5am, when we ran into each other outside of his winery. At that time he was setting up our 9am tasting that spanned from the 1979 Brunello to cask samples of each individual parcel of Sangiovese from the 2019 vintage. It’s that commitment to the job, the passion for the land and for Montalcino, the desire to delve deeply into the science, as well as the romance of wine, that sets Francesco Ripaccioli apart from many others. I returned at the official start of my appointment to find around thirty bottles of wine to go through. This was going to be an education.

It’s amazing to think of what Canalicchio di Sopra has accomplished over the years. In the hands of the current generation’s father, the wines were classic and traditional. Francesco Ripaccioli and his siblings brought the purity of fruit and transparent stamp of terroir that the wines were lacking before. Of course, they had all the right ingredients, with choice locations on both the Montosoli hill and within the Canalicchio cru to work with. Since that time, the family has studied each location to break them down into micro-terroirs within the larger parcels. Today, each plot is treated individually in the vineyards and is vinified separately. This allows the winery to design the perfect blend, year after year, to build their estate Brunello and Riserva. It’s also proven that certain parcels deserve their own individual bottling, hence the creation of Vigna La Casaccia, and in the coming years, the cru-designated Montosoli.

Francesco Ripaccioli had a much more positive view on the results of the 2017 vintage than the rumors that have circulated around over the last few years. He agrees that it was an extremely hot and dry vintage that required diligence in the vineyards. He also cited a number of smaller rain events that helped in their water-retaining soils. The more substantial rains that arrived in the beginning of September, and the cool temperatures that followed, permitted the ripening process of the grapes to balance out, and for the grapes to regain fresh acidities. After the torrid summer, this area enjoyed three weeks of ideal weather prior to Canalicchio di Sopra’s harvest. The fruit was still heavily influenced by the season, so the winery used a softer delastage and less pumping over, as well as a berry-by-berry selection and shorter maceration. While there will be no Riserva made from 2017, with its fruit having gone to the estate wine, the Brunello itself is a total success. It may not have the lifespan and mix of floral and mineral finesse that we typically associate with this part of Montalcino, but it is a seriously good wine with medium-term cellar potential that should not be missed, and the same goes for La Casaccia.

Then there’s the 2016 Riserva. At Canalicchio di Sopra, the Riserva has the same élevage as the Brunello, with 36 months in 25-hectoliter Slavonian oak barrels, but is released later and has a different blend of vineyards depending on the vintage. (The logic of aging Riservas longer in barrel is starting to be looked upon as incorrect throughout much of the region.) As for the 2016 Riserva, Ripaccioli decided to do an equal parts blending of Vigna Vecchia Mercatale and the Montosoli Vigna Filari Lunghi parcel, and the results are off the charts. There was a time when the Riserva was bigger, more powerful but not necessarily better than any of the other wines.