Brunello 2021 & Riserva 2020

Montosoli is a plateau to the north of Montalcino – one of the few sites in the appellation to which producers from different houses refer when they want to name the best of their terroir. A name like a silent agreement among those who know: This is where the soil speaks most clearly. The high proportion of silt in this special subsoil gives the Sangiovese Grosso a minerality, transparency and freshness that can hardly be found in this form in any other part of Montalcino. And at the heart of this plateau lies the Vigna Montosoli of Valdicava. Vincenzo Abbruzzese has treated this parcel differently from the very beginning – harvested separately, vinified separately, vinified separately. Vigna Montosoli is Valdicava's youngest single vineyard and also its flagship: the 2019 first vintage immediately received 100 points from James Suckling, one of only two perfect Brunellos from this exceptional vintage. The message was clear.

Tenuta Nuova. 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, no one had ever planted Sangiovese there before. This was no accident – it was a judgement that Giacomo Neri wanted to challenge. Not out of defiance, but out of conviction: that this terrain, this microclimate and these soils held the potential for a Brunello with its own distinct character. What followed was not a gut feeling, but a methodical approach. Systematic studies of the microclimates, the optimal exposures and the soils – clone selection, rootstock research, planting distances; everything was scrutinised, every decision made. The first result came in 1993. A few years later, the rest of the world was talking about it.

The Vigna Loreto covers one and a half hectares. Steep, stony and east-facing – the slope faces the morning sun, not the midday sun. The soil is rich in tuff and pebbly scree, poor in nutrients, and unforgiving. The vines are the result of a mass selection from eight of the estate's own Sangiovese clones, which Mastrojanni has selected over decades: the estate's genetic memory is embodied in every vine. It was Gabriele Mastrojanni himself who recognised Vigna Loreto as a distinct plot – the ability to demonstrate finesse where Castelnuovo dell'Abate would otherwise impress with its power. Today, every vintage confirms what the founder saw: Loreto speaks more softly than the great Brunello, but with greater precision. The east-facing aspect gives the wine freshness; the tuff lends it mineral tension; and the lean soils force concentration without overripeness. 36 months' ageing in Allier barrels ranging from 16 to 33 hectolitres – the small sizes that allow the wood to be close to the wine without dominating it.

Giovanni Neri died in 1986, fifteen years after purchasing Podere Casanova. He had lived out his dream – but not long enough to see what became of it. His son Giacomo, and his grandsons Giovanni and Gianlorenzo, are carrying on his dream. And to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the first vineyard, they dedicated a wine to the founder that bears his name – and embodies his philosophy: the belief that Montalcino was capable of more than the world realised at the time. The vineyard is old and untamed, as the estate itself puts it – vines over fifty years old that have never stopped putting down deep roots.

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.

On 7 April 2021, frost fell across Montalcino. And again on 15 April. In some vineyards, it destroyed a third of the harvest. At Vignavecchia, on its steep west-facing slope at an altitude of 420 metres, the frost affected the vines differently: not as destruction, but as a form of selection. What survived were the strongest shoots and the best-protected grapes – a natural limitation on yield, more radical than any human intervention. Nature pruned what the winegrower would never have dared to. What followed was a summer of extremes and an autumn of perfection. The months up to August were hot and dry, followed by sporadic rainfall that allowed the vines to recover. September brought exactly what Sangiovese needs: warm days, cool nights, and those temperature fluctuations that preserve aromatics and acidity whilst phenolic ripeness progresses. The harvest began almost two weeks earlier than was usual just a few years ago – a sign of climate change, but this year also a stroke of luck: the grapes reached their peak before the autumn rains set in.

At Fuligni, the Riserva is not a matter of course. It is produced only when a vintage deserves it – and when the estate's oldest vineyards have yielded something that is more than just Brunello. More than just good. 1972, 1976, 2002: vintages in which Fuligni simply did not release any Brunello at all because the quality wasn't up to standard. Such consistency is rare, for one must be able to afford it and be willing to do so. It is also the foundation upon which a Riserva acquires its very special significance. 2020 was no easy year. Warm, dry, early-ripening – a vintage that many producers dismissed as too opulent, too soft. Fuligni saw it differently. The north-east-facing vineyards in Cottimelli, at altitudes of between 380 and 450 metres, on Galestro soil – stony, cool, with natural acidity even in hot years – tempered the heat and preserved the freshness. What proved a challenge in flatter, warmer sites resulted here in concentrated, healthy grapes with depth and surprising elegance. The estate's oldest vines, over forty years old, with reduced yields and highly concentrated juice, provided the grapes for this selection.

The name is a tribute. Giodo – a combination of Giovanna and Donatello, his parents' names. Carlo Ferrini, one of Italy's most eminent Oenologist, has dedicated his life to Sangiovese – as a consultant to estates from Montalcino to Etna, and as the architect of some of Tuscany's most influential wines of the last three decades. It was never a question of 'if', but of 'when' he would eventually establish his own vineyard. In 2002, he found it: ten hectares in Sant'Angelo in Colle, south-west of Montalcino, seven of which were woodland and three set aside for vines. And the only grape grown here is Sangiovese – 15 carefully selected clones, planted with the patience of a man who knows that great wines are not made, but nurtured.

Pianrosso: the red field. The name refers to iron-rich soils that lend the Sangiovese a mineral depth that no winery in the world can replicate. 11.7 hectares on the south-eastern edge of Montalcino, at altitudes between 240 and 360 metres, where ancient marine deposits meet galestro slate. Giuseppe Bianchini had the vineyard replanted in the 1980s, knowing that the heart of the estate lay dormant here. Pianrosso is bottled only in exceptional vintages, following a rigorous selection of the finest grapes, and spends a whole year longer in Slavonian botti than the classic Brunello. Thirty-six months in large oak, followed by further ageing in the bottle. The result is not a wine for immediate enjoyment, but a testament to patience. In 2021, Montalcino produced one of those vintages you never forget: glorious September days, cool nights, and perfect phenolic ripeness.

A lake next to the vineyard – that's not a metaphor, it's geography. Vigna del Lago is situated in the north-west of Montalcino, at an altitude of 280 metres, and the small lake that gives the vineyard its name tempers the otherwise continental climate of this exposure: harsh winters, very hot summers, and marked day-night temperature fluctuations. The soil is clay – heavy, water-retaining and cool. A combination that forces the Sangiovese Grosso to put down deep roots, ripen slowly and develop elegance rather than bulk. The vine stock is the densest in the entire Val-di-Suga portfolio: 7,500 vines per hectare – a figure reminiscent of Burgundy's planting densities. Double spur cordon training, careful foliage management, yield reduction through thinning. Hand-harvesting into crates takes place exclusively in the early hours of the morning. In the cellar: fermentation for eight to twelve days, followed by maceration for a further two to three weeks. Maturation in 40-hectolitre Slavonian oak barrels for 24 months, then in concrete tanks, then in bottle. No barriques, no influence from wood – pure terroir. 2021 was a fortunate vintage for Vigna del Lago. The late frost in April reduced the harvest – and concentrated the very best. No extreme summer, no stress.

The Vigna Loreto covers one and a half hectares. Steep, stony and east-facing – the slope faces the morning sun, not the midday sun. The soil is rich in tuff and pebbles, poor in nutrients, and unforgiving. The vines are the result of a mass selection from eight of the estate's own Sangiovese clones, which Mastrojanni has selected over decades: the estate's genetic memory is embodied in every vine. It was Gabriele Mastrojanni himself who recognised Vigna Loreto as a distinct plot – the ability to demonstrate finesse where Castelnuovo dell'Abate otherwise impresses with its power. Today, every vintage confirms what the founder saw: Loreto speaks more softly than the great Brunello, but with greater precision. The east-facing aspect gives the wine freshness, the tuff lends it mineral tension, and the lean soils force concentration without overripeness. 36 months' ageing in Allier barrels ranging from 16 to 33 hectolitres – the small sizes that allow the wood to be close to the wine without dominating it.

In the early 1990s, Vittorio Frescobaldi and Robert Mondavi joined forces, thereby opening a new chapter in the history of Tuscan wine. Since 2004, sole management has rested with Lamberto Frescobaldi, who has consistently carried forward this vision ever since. Alongside Luce, the estate's renowned flagship wine, the Tenuta has since also devoted itself to Brunello itself – the wine produced in the south-western quadrant of Montalcino from a single, tiny plot known as Madonnino. Of the estate's 92 hectares, only eleven are officially registered in the Albo del Brunello di Montalcino, and it is precisely here, on Galestro soil with ideal exposure, that the Sangiovese finds that balance of structure and elegance for which this grape variety is famous.

The vines cover two hectares directly below the small chapel that gave the wine its name. This is the steepest, oldest part of the estate, where Alessandro Mori heard the bells over the vines as a child. If there is a wine that is to become his legacy, then it must come from here. Brunello Madonna delle Grazie does not appear every year. There was none in 2002 and 2014 – the grapes were not good enough. This decision costs money, but Alessandro Mori has never acted on it. What distinguishes the Madonna from all other Brunellos in the appellation – even from its own basic Brunello – is the vinification. While the classic Il Marroneto is born with fermentation temperatures of up to 40°C and intensive extraction, the Madonna follows the opposite path: two days of rest after the harvest, then cool fermentation at 28°C for three to four weeks. The extraction is gentle, almost tender – more of an infusion than a maceration, closer to Pinot Noir than to classic Sangiovese. Then matured for 40 months in neutral vats.

2020 was the year in which the silence of the vineyards became a calculation. While the world stood still, Montalcino's winegrowers transformed the enforced slowness into precision: vineyard by vineyard, vine by vine, with an attention that other years would not have allowed. At Poggio di Sotto, this benefited a winery that is never in a hurry anyway. The summer of 2020 was hot – no question about it. But Monte Amiata, always vigilant behind the vineyards, moderated with its cool nights. Rain at the end of September, then a long, leisurely autumn with thirty days of striking day-night difference. Poggio di Sotto harvested late, only at the end of September – and took its time. In hot years, the estate characteristically chooses the deeper plots for its Riserva: cooler clay and Galestro, the natural brake against over-ripening. The result is a 2020 that carries the warmth of the vintage without being dominated by it.

Lisini produces four Brunellos. Each represents a different philosophy – the Annata stands for balance and approachability, the Ugolaia for the character of a single vineyard, and the new Poggio Severo for a cooler, higher-altitude plot. The Riserva stands for something else: tradition. The estate itself calls it the most traditional wine in its entire portfolio – not because it is older, but because it embodies the classic Montalcino ideal: concentration, depth and patience. It is produced from a rigorous selection of the finest grapes from across the entire estate – from the vineyards around Sant'Angelo in Colle and the Sesta site near Castelnuovo dell'Abate. Not a single vineyard, but the sum of the very best a vintage has to offer. The maceration period, at 20 to 26 days, is longer than for the Annata, and the ageing in large Slavonian oak barrels is correspondingly extended.

Montosoli is a plateau to the north of Montalcino – one of the few sites in the appellation to which producers from different houses refer when they want to name the best of their terroir. A name like a silent agreement among those who know: This is where the soil speaks most clearly. The high proportion of silt in this special subsoil gives the Sangiovese Grosso a minerality, transparency and freshness that can hardly be found in this form in any other part of Montalcino. And at the heart of this plateau lies the Vigna Montosoli of Valdicava. Vincenzo Abbruzzese has treated this parcel differently from the very beginning – harvested separately, vinified separately, vinified separately. Vigna Montosoli is Valdicava's youngest single vineyard and also its flagship: the 2019 first vintage immediately received 100 points from James Suckling, one of only two perfect Brunellos from this exceptional vintage. The message was clear.

Giovanni Neri died in 1986, fifteen years after purchasing Podere Casanova. He had lived out his dream – but not long enough to see what became of it. His son Giacomo, and his grandsons Giovanni and Gianlorenzo, are carrying on his dream. And to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the first vineyard, they dedicated a wine to the founder that bears his name – and embodies his philosophy: the belief that Montalcino was capable of more than the world realised at the time. The vineyard is old and untamed, as the estate itself puts it – vines over fifty years old that have never stopped putting down deep roots.

Tenuta Nuova. 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, no one had ever planted Sangiovese there before. This was no oversight – it was a judgement that Giacomo Neri wanted to overturn. Not out of defiance, but out of conviction: that this terrain, this microclimate, these soils held the potential for a Brunello with a character all of its own. What followed was not a gut feeling, but a methodical approach. Systematic studies of the microclimates, the optimal exposures and the soils – clone selection, rootstock research, planting distances; everything was scrutinised, every decision made. The first result came in 1993. A few years later, the rest of the world was talking about it.

There are vineyards named after the place where they are situated. And there are vineyards that give the place its name in the first place. Podernovi is one such example – 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 the district share 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, facing south-east, where the view sweeps across the Val d'Orcia towards Monte Amiata. The soils are a kaleidoscope of Tuscan geology: marl and galestro – that schistose clay which lends the region’s finest Sangiovese sites their distinctive minerality – interspersed with loam that stores water and nourishes the vines even during dry summers. What sets this vineyard apart from others is not only its terroir, but the rigour with which San Polo tends it: Four to five bunches per vine, no more – 700 to 800 grams per vine, a yield reminiscent of Burgundian standards, forcing the Sangiovese to achieve a concentration it rarely attains elsewhere.

The year 1991 was the first. With the 2021 vintage, Poggio di Sotto is celebrating its thirtieth Brunello – an anniversary that the estate is marking with a special label in gold print, discreetly and without pomp, entirely in the style of the house. Thirty vintages that have proven that elegance is not a weakness. 2021 was not an easy year. Late frosts in spring decimated the harvest, summer brought heat, August finally brought rain – a sequence that could have been disastrous in other hands. Cellar master Leonardo Berti sees this as the special character of this vintage: fewer grapes, more concentration and an intensity gained through stress, which was kept in balance by the freshness of the long growing season. The soils – a mosaic of white and red clay, galestro and grey marl – did the rest. Spontaneous fermentation in wooden vats, maceration for at least 30 days, 42 months in large Slavonian oak barrels, unfiltered. The recipe is the same. The wine is not.

The Lilium Soldera blooms in the botanical garden of Case Basse. A variety that was named after its founder because when it first bloomed, the grower thought of the flavour of a wine that had given him an unforgettable moment. No coincidence: Gianfranco Soldera was never just a winegrower. He was a botanist, a naturalist, a visionary – one who believed that wine in its purest form is a reflection of the entire biodiversity of a place. The bees, the flowers, the insects, the soil: All part of a single system that ultimately culminates in a bottle.

2020 was the year in which the silence of the vineyards became a calculation. While the world stood still, Montalcino's winegrowers transformed the enforced slowness into precision: vineyard by vineyard, vine by vine, with an attention that other years would not have allowed. At Poggio di Sotto, this benefited a winery that is never in a hurry anyway. The summer of 2020 was hot – no question about it. But Monte Amiata, always vigilant behind the vineyards, moderated with its cool nights. Rain at the end of September, then a long, leisurely autumn with thirty days of marked day-night difference. Poggio di Sotto harvested late, only at the end of September – and took its time. In hot years, the estate characteristically chooses the deeper plots for its Riserva: cooler clay and Galestro, the natural brake against over-ripening. The result is a 2020 that carries the warmth of the vintage without being dominated by it.

The vines cover two hectares directly below the small chapel that gave the wine its name. This is the steepest, oldest part of the estate, where Alessandro Mori heard the bells over the vines as a child. If there is a wine that is to become his legacy, then it must come from here. Brunello Madonna delle Grazie does not appear every year. There was none in 2002 and 2014 – the grapes were not good enough. This decision costs money, but Alessandro Mori has never acted on it. What distinguishes the Madonna from all other Brunellos in the appellation – even from its own basic Brunello – is the vinification. While the classic Il Marroneto is born with fermentation temperatures of up to 40°C and intensive extraction, the Madonna follows the opposite path: two days of rest after the harvest, then cool fermentation at 28°C for three to four weeks. The extraction is gentle, almost tender – more of an infusion than a maceration, closer to Pinot Noir than to classic Sangiovese. Then matured for 40 months in neutral vats.

There are wines that have invented a category. Madonna del Piano was one of the very first single-vineyard Brunelli ever produced – long before the appellation had a formal language for the concept of cru, long before other houses started bottling their best parcels separately. Vincenzo Abbruzzese's grandfather had bought the estate in 1953; Vincenzo himself turned a small vineyard parcel in Montosoli into what James Suckling described as "one of the great wines of Tuscany, if not Italy". The Madonna del Piano parcel is located in the heart of the Valdicava vineyards, at 350 metres in the northern Montosoli zone, on soil rich in galestro and limestone, which gives the Sangiovese Grosso a mineral austerity and floral depth that is not found in warmer locations in Montalcino. Organic cultivation without chemical intervention for generations. Yield reduced to the absolute minimum. Every berry counts.