2018 Brunello di Montalcino

For the longest time, I’ve looked to the Talenti Brunello for being one of the most consistently dependable wines in the region. One that could impress from vintage to vintage no matter the climatic conditions. In more recent years, it has been apparent that new life and energy have pushed the Talenti wines from being dependable to being standouts. Much of this new vigor has been imparted by their winemaker, Riccardo Talenti. The estate farms several parcels throughout the south of Montalcino, from the southern hill leading toward Sant’Angelo in Colle, across the Strada di Sesta, and down to the deepest reaches of Castelnuovo dell’Abate to make the amazingly balanced and often overperforming Brunello di Montalcino. Closer to the winery on the south hill lies the two-hectare Piero cru, which produces Talenti’s single-vineyard Brunello. From this location, Riccardo’s father, Pierluigi Talenti, developed his clonal nursery in the 1970s. In 2007, the original vines were replanted using massal selection on new rootstocks that are noted for digging deep into the soils for nutrients, one of the ways producers are attempting to counteract dry conditions in the future. The Piero vineyard is well-ventilated, surrounded by forests and located at 430 meters. The soils here are a mix of rich clay, galestro and rock; many rocks were so large that they were used to line Piero with a stone wall. The Piero bottling, now only in its fourth vintage, quickly established itself as one of the top single-vineyard Brunello hailing from Montalcino.