Tuscans Returning

Tuscany’s
2OO4 vintage now rests quietly in containers of steel, oak
and concrete. In February 2OO5, at a series of tastings
organized in Tuscany by the consortiums of Chianti Classico,
Montepulciano and Montalcino, I sipped barrel and tank
samples of 2OO4s. I sensed their future profiles. I can’t
say that these profiles were clearly outlined. The precise
images of their taste will take time, two years or more, to
crystallize. They will emerge like the faces of swimmers
rising from the depths of a pond. The 2OO4s that I tasted
already seemed to show a refreshing and clean fruity taste
allied to enough body and color to remind me of tasting
experiences that I had had about a decade ago.

A refreshingly
vivid black-cherry perfume is the hallmark of good
Sangiovese. It should have moderate alcohol, lively acidity,
and a blend of astringent and bitter flavors that makes one
sense a tonic within the wine. I have to go back to 1996,
albeit not a great vintage, to remember a vintage of this
type. The 1995, however, remains the highest quality example
of the classic profile that I am talking about. This was a
vintage saved by an unusually dry and sunny weather which
extended into October and November. Late picking in
temperatures cool enough to preserve aromatic precursor
compounds and acidity left the wines simply brimming with
sour black cherries. Today those wines still show youthful
vivacity within the context of more mature flavors. They are
mature, yet hard and bright.

As I go back
into my memory to the same series of tastings that I have
frequented in preceding years, I peel back the taste
memories of those baby vintage wines. At first the images
are hard to define as if they are stuck-together like pages
of a book. With more thought, each vintage vividly separates
itself from the next. The infant 2OO3s had been lacking in
fresh fruit yet so concentrated in body as to make me wonder
if it were Tuscan Sangiovese that I was experiencing. The
vines in 2OO3 had tried to bring their fruit to maturity in
lingering, sweltering heat and desperately dry conditions.
The baby 2OO2s had the modest alcohol of the Sangioveses of
old but lacked vibrant fruit and structure. Due to incessant
rains of August and September of that year, they had been
heavily treated with chemicals to prevent the occurrence of
botrytis and acid rot. After tasting them, I had a splitting
headache. I was as treated as the wines. More recently,
tastings of the 2OO2s show that levels of whatever had been
irritating me have abated. They have become pleasant, simple
wines which are ready-to-drink. The baby 2OO1s were very
good wines according to an international point of reference
for quality wine. To me, however, they were a bit too
alcoholic and too concentrated for classic Sangiovese. The
2OOOs were fruitless and alcoholic, the progeny of vintage
weather that in late August of that year had suddenly became
a dry, searing oven. In my mind’s eye, I have trouble
distinguishing the infant 1999s from the 2OO1s. The 1998s
were heavy and lacked freshness. August had been too hot and
too much rain had fallen during the harvest. The 1997s,
however, showed their complexity and richness at an early
age. These infant wines had a combination of richness and
balance remarkable for infant Sangiovese. They were the
product of a harvest period that was uniformly warm-to-hot,
dry and sunny. But they were too rich to meet my standard
for “classic”. Before them came the 1996s, a vintage of
sappy, typical Sangiovese, classic in profile but too light
to be grand and classic at the same time.

At the February
tasting in Tuscany, the first consortium to present its case
for the 2OO4 vintage was Chianti Classico. The enological
director, Daniele Rossellini, explained how a combination of
cool temperatures and rain during May resulted in an
abundance of vegetation. The high humidity made growers fear
an attack of peronospera, more commonly referred to as downy
mildew. Because of the sodden condition of the soil, they
had been unable to drive their tractors into the vineyards
and apply protective sprays. The persistent cool
temperatures (about 5O degrees Fahrenheit), however, did the
job man could not – limiting the peronospera. By the middle
of May the atmosphere and soil became drier and farmers were
able to enter the vineyards, provide treatments and tend
more generally to the vines. In previous vintages, flowering
had occurred from the end of May to the middle of June. In
2OO4, cool temperatures, less-than-normal sunshine, and the
drag of excess vegetation slowed down vine growth. Vines
went through flowering late – at the end of June. Veraison,
too, was late, by as much as over a week, occurring in the
middle of August. September, however, brought the heat
needed for the vines’ final sprint towards ripening.
Unusually high diurnal temperature variation during the
final maturation kick kept grapeskin pigmentation in the
blue spectrum and acidities unusually high. The cool
temperatures additionally preserved aromatic precursor
compounds in the grapeskins. The Merlot, usually the first
red variety to be harvested, was brought in after September
2O in excellent condition. October brought some sporadic
rain. Producers who had worked well in the vineyard avoided
the negative impact of the rain on the quality of the
grapes. The harvesting of Sangiovese and other late ripening
grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Canaiolo began on
October 1O, a date consistent with average harvests of the
196Os, 197Os and 198Os. Harvests would have been unusually
abundant had not the Chianti Classico consortium required a
2O% reduction of yield from its members. This reduction
meant that members not only made green harvests in the field
but declassifications in the winery. Lower quality juice was
largely directed toward IGT and Vino da Tavola wines. High
acidities in many wines led to some difficulties finishing
the malolactic fermentation – some wines were still going
through malolactic fermentation at the time of the February
tasting. Rossellini believes that the 2OO4 vintage wines
will resemble the 1995 ones in character. Average 2OO4 wine
samples have 13 degrees alcohol or higher. Fermentations
have been very pure resulting in very low levels of volatile
acidity.

Giovanni
Manetti, of Fontodi in Chianti Classico, confirmed
Rossellini’s description of the vintage. He had not brought
his 2OO4 to the tasting because the malolactic fermentation
was not completely over. His wines were between 13 to 13.5
degrees in alcohol. Marco Firidolfi Ricasoli, of Rocca di
Montegrossi, told me that his Merlot harvest began on
September 28, followed by the Sangiovese and the Cabernet
Sauvignon. The Canaiolo was picked one month later – as late
as had ever been seen at Rocca di Montegrossi. He summed up
the vintage as “Generous in quantity and
quality”.

Moving south to
Montepulciano, a report released by the Vino Nobile di
Montepulciano Consortium noted fairly low temperatures and
frequent rainfall during April, May and early June. The
long, extended spring gave way to a cool summer.
Temperatures rose somewhat in July and August, but without
the high temperatures of recent years. Maximum temperatures
rarely exceeded 86 degrees-F. July and August had periods of
heat alternating with cloudy periods and occasional heavy
rains. There was less sunlight than average. The weather
patterns during September and October continued this
pattern. Most wineries harvested in the middle of October.
Wines on average had 13 to13.5 degrees alcohol, high levels
of acidity, medium-to-high polyphenols, and satisfactory
anthrocyanins and “sweet” tannins. The consortium gave the
vintage a 4 out of 5 star rating.

Resident
winemaker Roberto da Frassini, at the Fassati winery in
Montepulciano, noted hot temperatures in March, which had
favored the early growth of buds and vegetative growth.
Slow-down of growth began in April. He outlined the 2OO4
vine growth cycle in the following manner:

March
1O Budbreak
April
2O Emergence of
shoots
May
8 Flowering
June
15 Fruit set
August
4 Start of
veraison
September
2 End of
veraison
Mid-October
Optimal ripeness of
Sangiovese achieved

With degrees in
both viticulture and enology, consulting enologist Stefano
Chioccioli is perfectly positioned to assess the character
of the 2OO4 vintage. He has clients all over Tuscany. This
gives him a “big” perspective. I interviewed him in
Montalcino’s medieval town square. As we talked, the
Brunello di Montalcino consortium was installing a tile
designed by American actor Peter Weller, who is also a
Brunello aficionado. The tile celebrates the 5 star (out of
5) rating that the consortium had awarded the vintage. While
there was quite a bit of fanfare surrounding the vintage
assessment here in Montalcino, Montepulciano made a low key
announcement of its rating. The Chianti Classico consortium
prefers to release its own rating later, after the wines
have developed more and under less journalistic
scrutiny.

Chioccioli told
me that he agreed with Montalcino’s 5 star rating.
Chioccioli echoed what I had been told in Chianti Classico
and Montepulciano, though from his description of the
Montalcino’s harvest period made seem a bit hotter, sunnier
and drier than that of Montepulciano to its east and Chianti
Classico to its north. The harvest of Sangiovese began there
in during the second half of September and went on until
October, but he added that those producers who harvested
before October 1O reduced the potential quality of their
wines. He noted that the high fruitfulness of the year was
the consequence of the unusually sunny 2OO3 growing season,
which poured sunlight on the buds of that year. The buds
that pruners in the following winter (2OO3 to 2OO4) selected
to generate the 2OO4 vine growth were, along with the rains
of April, responsible for a boom of vegetative growth. Those
who harvested the best grapes had to diligently, after
veraison, perform green harvests at least two times. Leaving
one to 3 bunches per shoot had been ideal for quality. He
told me that the outstanding characteristic of the future
wines would be their aromatic complexity and intensity of
flavor. He noted that the 2OO4 wines would also come in
handy as a means to freshen up the ponderous 2OO3 wines. The
law for vintage declaration in the EU allows for a 15%
addition of the juice or wine of another vintage. There was
no mandatory reduction here in Montalcino (or in
Montepulciano) as had been imposed in Chianti Classico.
Stefano Porcinai, consulting enologist at Collemattoni, said
that in the final week of October there was some rain, but
most Montalcino grapes were already in the cellar by that
time. Leonardo Bellaccini, enologist for Campogiovanni said
that about 8O% harvested of that estate’s grapes were
harvested before the rain and 2O% afterwards. Fabio Ratto,
manager of Fattoria Pian delle Vigne, noted the difficulty
of doing the “malo” that Manetti of Fontodi had noted with
reference to his Chianti Classico: “We did the malo in steel
in 2OO4 because it was too difficult to do in
oak.”

Chioccioli also
talked about the 2OO4 harvest conditions on the Tuscan
coast. Generally harvests there were 7 to 8 days ahead of
corresponding ones in the interior, and 7 to 8 days behind
those of 2OO3. Rain arrived in the middle of October, a
little earlier than in the interior. Tua Rita near Suvereto,
one of Chioccioli’s clients, harvested its Merlot on the 3rd
or 4th day of September. Merlot has a tendency to over-ripen
on the coast, but the cooler than normal conditions of 2OO4
will, according to Chioccioli, assure a great vintage for
that estate’s Merlot, Redigaffi. Paolo Valdastri, director
of the Consorzio Strada del Vino Costa degli Etruschi,
represents appellations such Bolgheri and Suvereto along the
central Tuscan coast. He told me: “There were some problems
with the maturation of the Sangiovese which by the time of
its harvest had developed some botrytis problems. Cabernet
Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah, however, were harvested in
excellent condition.” Bolgherian Michele Satta, an expert
producer of Sangiovese wine, said he had “obtained his best
results ever.”

The 2OO4 reds
that I tasted were like wild baby animals. Their raw,
immature noses were brimming with the impacts of
tooty-fruity fermentation esters, naked oak and
match-smelling sulfites. At the same time, I witnessed their
bright hue, clean fruity smells and solid weight on the
palate. Listening to the accounts of the 2OO4 growing
conditions has bolstered my hope that I will, in a few
years’ time, be sipping refreshing Tuscan Sangiovese. It’s
been awhile!

Lovers of Tuscan
wines not only have the 2OO4 reds to eagerly wait for. The
cool weather conditions, which had enough humidity to
refresh the vines without encouraging fungus, and the
substantial diurnal temperature variation spell great
results for wines made from early maturing white grapes such
as Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Wines made from later
harvested white varieties such as Trebbiano and Malvasia,
however, will likely not be great examples of their type.
Rains arrived during their harvests. Vin Santo, largely made
with Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes, had its own unique
problem. According Chioccioli, November and December were
warm, humid and without wind. These conditions opened the
door for rampant botrytis infection during the indoor drying
period of Vin Santo grapes. Marco Firidolfi Ricasoli who
makes excellent Vin Santo at Rocco di Montegrossi said that
his own production would almost be halved.