2017 Brunello di Montalcino

Touring the vineyards of Il Poggione with Fabrizio and Alessandro Bindocci during a long dry spell in July of 2021 was eye-opening to show how well these old vines could remain healthy through such hot and parched conditions. The canopies were full and vibrant, thriving in the calcareous clay soils that these vines are planted in. Like most producers in Sant’Angelo in Colle, Il Poggione will use emergency irrigation, but only if necessary. At that time (July 2021), it was not even being considered; but in a vintage like 2017, it was necessary. Granted, what Il Poggione also has going for them is the health and age of their vines, the biodiversity of the property, and higher elevations (up to 450 meters) that help to balance the heat. The massive Il Poggione holdings encompass 600 hectares of land, of which only 125 are planted to vines, and 70 with olive groves. To this day, and even at that size, harvest continues to be done by hand. During the torrid 2017 vintage, that harvest was also done earlier, starting September 1st, in an attempt to maintain acidity and prevent the grapes from shriveling on the vines; as a result, the winery needed to be incredibly strict with their selection, and go as far as removing seeds during the early parts of the fermentation process. As is always the case, Il Poggione vinifies all of their parcels separately, refining in large French oak casks, which gives them the ability to blend fruit from young vines to old, and lower elevations to high, in order to create the most balanced expression of each vintage. In the case of 2017, that meant adding all of the old-vine fruit from Vigna Paganelli. In the end, production may be down by 15%, but what they created is an atypical expression of the vintage. Speaking of Vigna Paganelli, the 2016 may just be the greatest rendition of this wine that I’ve yet encountered. The Riserva is a selection from within the Paganelli vineyard, which was planted in 1964. A second selection then takes place at the winery, prior to crush, fermentation and a long refinement of forty-eight months in large French oak barrels between thirty-three to fifty-two hectoliters. This is a wine that will require a lot of patience from collectors, as today it is tightly wound yet densely packed with fruit and teeming with unbridled energy. While at the winery, I was able to taste a 1967 Riserva with Alessandro Bindocci, which resolidifies the staying power of these wines. In the end, we collect Il Poggione Brunello with the long game in mind--but it’s a game worth playing.