Brunello 2021 & Riserva 2020

"Fragrante, definite e verticale." This is how some Masters of Wine describe the 2021 Brunello vintage – fragrant, precise, vertical. Rarely does an official assessment so accurately capture the essence of a wine. Yet 2021 was not an easy year. An unusually late frost in April decimated the quantities, delayed growth and – and quietly did the wine some good. No extreme heatwaves afterwards. No drought stress to panic the vines. Instead: an even summer, dry ripening, a relaxed harvest from the end of September. The soils on the eastern slopes of Montalcino, a mixture of red clay, limestone and slate, came into their own in 2021. San Filippo's organic certification pays off particularly well in years like these: living soils that retain water and deliver precision.

Montalcino is a hill. To be more precise: a single large cone of limestone, marl, slate and sand that rises above the Val d'Orcia – exposed to the north, south-east and south-west, characterised by three completely different climates. Most of the producers in the appellation have access to one of these slopes. Val di Suga has all three. Vigna del Lago in the north-west, Poggio al Granchio in the south-east, Vigna Spuntali in the south-west. Three soils, three microclimates, three characters – and a single winery that unites them all under one roof. The basic Brunello is the result of this unique position: a cuvée from all three sites that does not aim for simplification, but for synthesis. Fermentation takes eight to twelve days at a controlled temperature, with maceration lasting a further two to three weeks. Maturation in traditional 50-hectolitre Slavonian oak barrels for 24 months, followed by six months in concrete and then the bottle. The 2021 vintage brought a late frost in April – the harvest was reduced, the quality concentrated. A dry summer without extreme heat, a long, even autumn. The Consorzio and a jury of eight Masters of Wine agreed on three words to characterise the vintage: fragrant, precise, vertical.

Montalcino in November 2008. Gianni Brunelli's thread broke – as Laura herself put it (he passed away). Anyone familiar with the elegance with which the winery has been run since then will understand that this was not the beginning of an end, but rather a different kind of continuity: quieter, more focussed, perhaps even more resolute. Laura Brunelli, biologist, Sardinian, soul of two institutions for decades – osteria Le Logge in Siena and the wineries on the slopes of Montalcino – has not replaced Gianni. She has carried on. And that's a difference you can feel in the glass.

Prètto. A word from the Tuscan dialect – true, sincere, schietto. Carlo Ferrini could not have chosen a more fitting name for a wine that is exactly that: no gesture, no staging, but Sangiovese in its most direct form. The Prètto is a joint effort – born from the dialogue between father and daughter, between three decades of experience and a young generation that sees Montalcino with new eyes. Bianca Ferrini, born in 1990, has given the Giodo project a very special voice with this wine. Four hectares of Sangiovese in Sant'Angelo in Colle, south-west Montalcino, at 360 metres in south-eastern exposure. Medium-heavy, skeleton-rich soil, 6,600 plants per hectare – a density that creates stress and forces concentration. Hand-picked, 20 days of maceration in steel and cement, délestage halfway through fermentation. Then around 30 months of ageing in 500, 700 and 2,500 Literswooden barrels – medium to large containers that give the wine structure without wood characterisation. Then six months in cement, followed by a further 12 months in the bottle. 12,000 bottles were produced.

On warm days, a resinous, musky scent rises from the hedge edges. Helichrysum – the immortelle, the Italians also call it "Immortelle", the immortal. It grows wild among the rocks and bushes that line San Polino's highest vineyards. When Katia and Gigi were looking for a name for their best wine, they didn't have to look far. The five hectares surrounding the farmhouse lie at an altitude of 450 metres, facing south, surrounded by Mediterranean scrub and forest. The view extends to Monte Amiata – the sacred mountain of the Etruscans, seat of their highest gods, the Tuscan Olympus. The soils tell of two powerful forces: the volcanic eruption of Mount Amiata 180,000 years ago, which left behind quartz and metamorphic clay, and the retreat of the Pliocene sea, which left behind sandy loams and shell fossils. Thin, complex soil – poor in nutrients, rich in character. Up here, the scirocco blows from the Sahara. The temperature differences between day and night are enormous. The grapes ripen slowly, develop thick skins and concentrated flavours. "Ah ... 2018," Katia once said about a cooler vintage, "finally you can smell Sangiovese grapes instead of just blackcurrant and undergrowth." Helichrysum is all about precisely this clarity – terroir instead of heat, soil instead of opulence.

Love is madness. And madness, says Francesco Illy, always creates something magical. This sentence is not only behind the name of this wine – it explains the entire Podere Le Ripi project: a nature photographer buys a wild piece of Tuscany near Castelnuovo dell'Abate in 1997, plants it according to biodynamic principles, surrounds himself with a young, hungry team – and created one of the most unconventional Brunello producers in the denomination. "Amore e Magia" comes from the eastern side of Montalcino, where Monte Amiata protects the vineyards like a silent guardian from harsh weather and sends cool downdraughts through the vines at night. The soil here is ancient and salty – oceanic clay and limestone from a time when these hills were still the bottom of the sea. You can taste it. A vibrant, iodised minerality that carries the wine from the inside out. Fermentation with wild yeasts in open vats, 50 days of mash contact – no intervention, just consistency. Then three years in large oak barrels, followed by cement. No new wood to cover up. No compromise that smoothes.

Some wineries tell their story on display boards. At Fuligni, it hangs on the walls. The palazzo in the centre of Montalcino dates back to the 17th century – the Medici resided here and a Spanish princess left a room that still bears her name today. Underneath, deeper than the palazzo itself, are the cellars: built at the end of the 16th century, with vaulted ceilings in tecnica mista, completely naturally insulated. This is where the Brunello matures in Slavonian oak barrels. It also matured here when Giovanni Maria Fuligni came to Montalcino at the beginning of the 20th century – and it matures here, just as his ancestors made wine in the Maremma before him, without interruption, without abbreviation.

Lisini produces four Brunelli. Each one stands for a different conviction – the Annata stands for balance and accessibility, the Ugolaia for the character of a single vineyard, the new Poggio Severo for a cooler, higher parcel. The Riserva stands for something else: for tradition. The estate itself calls it the most traditional wine in the entire portfolio – not because it is older, but because it epitomises the classic Montalcino ideal: Concentration, depth, patience. It is the result of a strict selection of the best grapes from the entire estate – from the vineyards around Sant'Angelo in Colle and the Sesta vineyard near Castelnuovo dell'Abate. No single vineyard, but the sum of the best that a vintage has to offer. The maceration period of 20 to 26 days is longer than for the Annata, and the ageing in large Slavonian oak barrels is correspondingly extended.

In 2021, the DOCG Montalcino delivered a vintage of rare transparency. Cooler nights, pronounced temperature fluctuations, slow and even ripening until well into October – conditions that allow the Sangiovese Grosso to show what lies behind the fruit: Minerality, structure, the fine geological layers of a vineyard that has been producing wine since the Middle Ages.

Gigliola Giannetti was born on the Argiano wine estate, the daughter of an employee in the wine cellar. She grew up among barrels and vines, the smell of fermenting must was the scent of her childhood. At 19, she joined Franco Biondi Santi, and later Giulio Gambelli encouraged her to make wine herself. In 1993, the time had come: first parcel, first child – daughter Viola. Three years later came two more hectares and daughter Sofia. Today, three women stand together in the cellar and three generations of Montalcino in one line. Le Potazzine is one of the highest vineyards in the appellation: 450 to 530 metres, where the harvest begins up to three weeks later than in the valley. What used to be considered a disadvantage is now worth its weight in gold – the grapes ripen slowly, retain their acidity and develop finesse instead of mere vigour. Vinification is uncompromisingly traditional: spontaneous fermentation, 30 to 45 days of maceration, no temperature control. The wine then rests for 42 months in large Slavonian oak barrels – six months longer than is even required for a Riserva. So every Brunello from Le Potazzine is actually a Riserva. Why don't they call it that? Modesty, or perhaps quiet pride.

Wolves and sirens. The coat of arms of Podere Le Ripi bears both – the wild and the seductive, the earthbound and the mythical. It is no coincidence that the Riserva bears this name. It is both. The vineyard is located on the eastern side of Montalcino, near Castelnuovo dell'Abate, where oceanic marl soil with a granite skeleton has been shaping the vines for millions of years. The vines are planted in Alberello – the old, bush-like training system in which each plant fights for itself, roots deeply, gives little and gives everything. 11,000 vines per hectare. Biodynamic, without concessions to simplicity. The vinification follows an inner logic that Sebastian Nasello thinks through to the end: spontaneous fermentation, maceration for 20 to 25 days in open oak vats – 80 per cent with classic pumping over, 20 per cent according to the Piedmontese principle of skin infusion. Then 36 months in large wooden barrels, followed by 14 months in cement. No shortcuts. No cosmetics. Just time and conviction.

Forty vintages. You have to let that melt in your mouth: When Pierluigi Talenti left the mountains of his native Romagna in the early 1950s and came to the hills of Montalcino, he not only found work at Sant'Angelo in Colle, but also his life's work. For over four decades, he shaped one of the appellation's most famous addresses as cellar master of Il Poggione – and is still considered one of the founding fathers of modern Brunello. He selected his own Sangiovese clones, set new quality standards and became a role model for an entire generation. In 1980, at the end of this era, he bought the Podere Pian di Conte – an old estate with a round tower overlooking the Orcia Valley – and began to press his own Brunello. Pierluigi died in 1999. Since then, grandson Riccardo has run the estate with the same tenacity, advised by Carlo Ferrini and supported by the knowledge that there is something special in these soils of sandy loam, clay and galestro.

Montalcino has many faces. In the south, where the soil is deeper and warmer, Brunelli are produced with lush vigour and Mediterranean richness. In the north, in the Montosoli area, a different voice speaks: cooler, more mineral, characterised by a tension that defines classic vintages. Here lies Valdicava – in the Val di Cava, the valley of the quarries, at 350 metres, with a soil of galestro, limestone and clay that has given Sangiovese Grosso its characteristic structure for three generations. Bramante Abbruzzese bought the estate in 1953 and his grandson Vincenzo took over in the 1980s, turning Valdicava into what Robert Parker described as one of the three or four best Brunello addresses in Italy.

There are vineyards that are named after the place where they are located. And there are vineyards that give the place its name in the first place. Podernovi is one such case – the three hectares of Sangiovese that have been growing on this plot for over thirty years are so inextricably linked to the hill that the vineyard and district bear the same name. When San Polo bottled the first single-vineyard Brunello from this vineyard in 2015, it was less a debut than a recognition of what the soil had long known. Podernovi lies at 450 metres above sea level, facing south-east, where the view sweeps across the Val d'Orcia to Monte Amiata. The soils are a kaleidoscope of Tuscan geology: marl and galestro, the slate-like clay that gives the best Sangiovese vineyards in the region their unnerving minerality, interspersed with clay that stores water and supplies the vines even in dry summers. What sets this vineyard apart from others is not just its terroir, but the rigour with which San Polo cultivates it: four to five grapes per vine, no more – 700 to 800 grams per vine, a yield that is reminiscent of Burgundy conditions and forces the Sangiovese to achieve a concentration that it rarely reaches elsewhere.

The term Vecchie Vigne is not a romantic gesture for Siro Pacenti. It is an agricultural decision. The oldest vines of both family estates – pelagrilli in the north and Piancornello in the south – have been standing for up to 60 years. They are not replaced, but nurtured; where necessary, supplemented by massively selected suckers from the best mother vines. What these vines produce each year is little – but highly precise. 2021 was a year of reduction. The April frost hit vines at all altitudes, decimating the harvest and concentrating what remained on the essentials. The harvest took place under rare calm – no rain, no pressure, precise choice of harvest. What arrived in the cellar was already exceptional. Fermentation in steel, 24 months in French barriques, two months in concrete, 22 months in the bottle.

Magistra. The Latin word for the teacher, the master – the one you learn from without her saying much. Ettore Spina has not given his oldest parcel a romantic name, but a precise one. What this scant hectare of vineyard does with Sangiovese teaches us. Planted in 1982 with the BBS11 clone of the Biondi-Santi family – the finest that Montalcino has to offer. Limestone-rich soil at 380 metres, vines deeply rooted over four decades, whose yield has always been low. Ian d'Agata describes the terroir of Sesta di Sopra, together with Montosoli, as one of the two best sites for Sangiovese in the whole of Montalcino. The Magistra site lies at the heart of this. And matures – like the Annata in its own barrel – in a single Slavonian oak vat. The result: barely 1,000 bottles per year. Even fewer in difficult years.

Riserva is not a marketing term – it is a legal obligation. A Brunello may only be called Riserva if it is marketed in the 6th year after the grape harvest at the earliest – at least two years in oak barrels and six months in the bottle. And it may only be produced if the vintage justifies it. So there is not a Riserva every year. It is only produced when the grapes demand it. And 2020 demanded it: a warm, dry year in Montalcino with concentrated ripeness, smaller berries and an intensity that gives fullness in the Annata-Brunello – and becomes something deeper in the Riserva. Altesino selected the best grapes from its four main parcels: Altesino, Macina, Pianezzine, Castelnuovo dell'Abate. 100% Sangiovese Grosso. Traditional fermentation, maturation in large oak barrels, then bottle ageing. Altesinos Riserva 2020 brings the power and concentration of the vintage.

Sometimes it takes a single vineyard to understand what a vintage really means. 2021: "fragrante, definite e verticale" – is the official verdict of some Masters of Wine. Fragrant, precise, vertical. For Le Lucére, this east-facing parcel on Galestro and slate, this sounds like a description of the wine's characteristics. No vintage in recent years fits the DNA of this site as well as 2021. The late frost in April decimated the quantities – what remained was more concentrated, healthier, more focussed. No heat stress in summer. A relaxed harvest at the end of September, in which the vines gave the last of what the season had to offer: clear fruit, lively acidity, fine-grained tannins. Caciorgna let the vintage speak for itself.

Tenuta Nuova means "new winery". And the name carries weight: when Giacomo Neri acquired the land around Le Cetine near the Abbazia di Sant'Antimo in southern Montalcino in the early 1990s, nobody had planted Sangiovese there yet. This was not an oversight – it was a judgement that Giacomo Neri wanted to revise. Not out of spite, but out of conviction: that this terrain, this microclimate, these soils have the potential for a Brunello with its own character. What followed was not a gut feeling, but a method. Systematic analyses of the microclimates, the optimal exposures, the soils – clone selection, rootstock research, planting distances, everything scrutinised, everything decided. The first result came in 1993, and a few years later the rest of the world was talking about it.

The Vigna Loreto covers one and a half hectares. Steep, stony, facing east – the slope faces the morning, not the midday sun. The soil is rich in tufa and pebbles, poor in nutrients, without indulgence. The vines come from a mass selection of eight of the estate's own Sangiovese clones, which Mastrojanni has selected over decades: the estate's genetic memory in every vine. It was Gabriele Mastrojanni himself who recognised Vigna Loreto as a parcel in its own right – the ability to show finesse where Castelnuovo dell'Abate otherwise convinces with power. Today, every vintage confirms what the founder saw: Loreto speaks more softly than the great Brunello, but more precisely. The eastern exposure gives the wine freshness, the tufa lends it mineral tension, the poor soils force concentration without over-ripening. 36 months of ageing in Allier barrels between 16 and 33 hectolitres – the small formats, the closeness that the wood gives the wine without dominating it.

This is a wine where the label speaks its own language. Filo di Seta is adorned with an oil painting by Sandro Chia from the early 1980s – now in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. It shows an androgynous figure leaping backwards into the Grotta Azzurra on Capri: weightless, suspended between sky and water. Below it, Chia's verse: "In strange, dark water – when a white dot shines, when a doll jumps – i fly by her side." Wine, the winemaker tells us, is supposed to be just that: a sensation that overcomes the obvious.

When Alessandro Mori and his young family moved into the dilapidated house on the northern walls of Montalcino in 1993, there was only one habitable room. The rest was decay and promise. Today, three decades later, Il Marroneto is a monument to what perseverance and conviction can create. The building itself dates back to the 13th century – a drying house for chestnuts (marroni) that once belonged to the nuns of the small Madonna delle Grazie chapel. Here they prepared bread for weary pilgrims on the Via Francigena. Alessandro still remembers the bells ringing over the vineyards of his childhood.

A railway station from the 19th century still stands on the estate – silent, fallen out of time, functionless. The wine that is produced here has something of this image: it doesn't hurry, it waits. And the 2021 came quietly anyway – no record-breaking summer, no headlines, just a cool spring, moderate heat and day-night fluctuations that gave the Sangiovese exactly what it needed: room to mature. Tenuta Pian delle Vigne is located six kilometres southwest of Montalcino, on calcareous clay soil with fine gravel, exposed to the southwest, around 130 metres above sea level. Antinori-owned since 1995 – and has been unyieldingly committed to the same principle ever since: large wooden barrels of between 30 and 80 hectolitres that preserve rather than dominate the Sangiovese fruit. No barrique dictates, no fashionable make-up. Only conviction.