Brunello di Montalcino

Brunello’s
illustrious reputation is as strong in Italy as it
is worldwide, although this is not an explanation
for why Americans buy and order it without anxiety.
After all, Barolo and Barbaresco have relatively
few adherents in the US, outside of Italian wine
aficionados, despite their lofty status on the home
market. Neither does the uniformly outstanding
notices Brunello receives among English language
journalists and critics bear on its broad
acceptance here – one can think of a dozen
categories of wine lionized by the specialist wine
press, such as Alsace, Austria, the Douro Valley,
and Ribera del Duero, that are virtual nonentities
in the broader market. Rather there is something
about the style of Brunello di Montalcino,
dark-colored, brilliantly aromatic, richly
extracted, concentrated in flavor but usually
polished and velvety in texture, that gets people
at all levels of experience and interest excited.
The name itself connotes quality, and it’s clear
upon first taste that Brunello is not an esoteric
“taster’s wine” but is accessible to a range of
consumers beyond just experts. Because not a large
volume of wine is produced, and the bottles tend to
be expensive, an aura of exclusivity and
fashionability surround Brunello. Not quite yet a
cult wine category, it has nonetheless entered the
field of vision of many wine drinkers who consider
it classy despite their lack of ease drinking
anything else from Italy. Few may be so loyal that
they choose only Brunello, as the wine habit by
nature encourages exploration, but it is definitely
one of a small handful of acceptable options if
there is interest in a big red wine for a diverse
group which can be ordered with perfect confidence
in its acceptance and popularity.

The best most
recent illustration of this broad acceptance
occurred at the New York Wine Experience in
October. Three of the top 10 wines of the year
2002, according to the editors at the Wine
Spectator, were Brunello di Montalcino. As
publications tend to do, the Spectator fell in love
with the 1997 vintage in Tuscany. The wines had a
uniformly intense flavor and polished texture, the
tannins were strong but the wines were surprisingly
delicious at what is the beginning of a long aging
curve. The two editors moderating the tasting panel
of the year’s best wines were unreserved in their
endorsement. This matches the praise that the
vintage received in other influential publications.
Consequently, as the movement of wines in the $50
and over a bottle category has been extremely slow
due to economic uncertainties in the past few
years, retailers report strong success in selling
Brunello, which is priced considerably
higher.

Interestingly
enough Brunello di Montalcino is not one of Italy’s
ancient wine treasures. In fact, its origins date
back only to the 1880s and to the efforts of a
single family, Biondi-Santi, who were the first
producers of the wine after they earlier had
discovered that a smaller-berried clone of the
predominant Sangiovese grape, known as “Sangiovese
Grosso”, thrived in the warm, southern Tuscan
hilltop vineyards of Montalcino. The great benefit
at the time, other than flavor concentration, was
the fact that this clone exhibited stronger
resistance to phylloxera, which was beginning to
plague the vineyards of Tuscany after having
ravaged through neighboring France. The resulting
wines produced from Sangiovese Grosso were so much
stronger than others being produced in Tuscany at
the time, most of which were blends of white and
red grapes, that they easily withstood an unusually
long period of cask maturation. The wine, and the
grapes from which they were made, gradually
acquired the name “Brunello” because of the dark
brownish color of the grapes when fully
ripened.

Biondi-Santi
remained the only producer of Brunello until after
World War II and the estate only released the wine
on rare occasions in the greatest vintages. Between
1888 and 1945, only four vintage declarations
qualified. As recently as 1960, less than a dozen
estates bottled Brunello di Montalcino. But today,
along with the explosion of interest, there are 220
growers and over 150 bottlers (up from 100 in the
late 1980s). The Consorzio of Brunello producers,
incorporating virtually all of the winemaking
estates, was established in 1967, just after
Italian authorities declared Brunello one of the
country’s first DOC classified wines in 1966. This
group plays a vital role in helping establish and
administer production codes (by a decree passed in
2001, it actually controls production protocols for
the zone down to very basic details) as well as
leading in the marketing and promotion of Brunello
abroad. Unlike the consorzio in the neighboring
Chianti Classico region, the group in Montalcino
enjoys almost unanimous participation among the
region’s producers and has been quite effective in
helping develop Brunello’s reputation as a unique
“brand.”

But Brunello’s
acceptance is a recent phenomenon outside of
specialist circles. Quality at best was erratic
during throughout the 1970s, as it was for most
famous Italian wine zones, but somehow Brunello’s
prestige was such that when new regulations went
into effect it was the first wine awarded the
coveted DOCG status in 1980. Beginning in the mid
1980s, several top vintages in succession excited
foreign wine writers and buyers (1988 was a
particular stand out) so that a mini-boom resulted,
making the wines more profitable. A familiar cycle
followed, allowing the best producers to re-invest
in higher levels of quality and the finest small
estates to begin producing their own wines. The
famed 1990 vintage stood out as a watershed, fully
as important in firming up the zone’s reputation
internationally at its time as 1997 has become more
recently in taking it to another level. An export
explosion began and demand has not waned since,
despite the generally weak vintages which followed
in the early 1990s. When in the year 2000 the
outstanding 1995’s wines were released to wide
acclaim, a frenzy over the 1997 vintage had already
taken hold. Hyperbolic pre-release endorsements had
begun to appear in all of the major American trade
and consumer wine publications, first with regards
to Tuscany in general, and then specifically as
pertained to its greatest red wine, Brunello. After
the wines were released for sale, comments like the
following, from Tuscan resident and Wine Spectator
senior editor James Suckling, were not uncommon:
“The one Italian wine you must buy this year is
1997 Brunello di Montalcino,” a vintage which, he
said “delivered the highest percentage of
outstanding wines I have yet encountered in my
tasting career.”

Small, although
steadily growing production has kept prices
advancing during this period of increasing demand.
Total production is capped today at about 450,000
cases, which is up from approximately 350,000 in
1999, and only 110,000 in 1986. About 65% is
exported, with the US market, the largest outside
of Italy, accounting for about a quarter of the
overall production. As production has increased, so
has a division among the most quality conscious and
best capitalized producers, versus some of the
smaller estate growers who are only recently
bottling their wines. In the latter camp there are
many who maintain outstanding quality procedures,
but also some who push production capacity to its
limit of nearly 4 tons per acre, and who produce as
little of the “second wine”, Rosso di Montalcino,
as they possibly can in an effort to satisfy demand
and maximize profits. One of the DOCG regulations
which is strictly enforced entails
“de-classification” of at least 30% of the
production each vintage from Brunello, with its
longer aging requirements, to earlier maturing
Rosso, which is a DOC that must age for only a year
prior to release.

The uniqueness of
Montalcino, it’s generally agreed, results from its
privileged high altitude terroir, located about 25
miles south of Siena. The area is quite sunny
during most growing seasons and consequently
produces very ripe grapes whose potential alcohol
levels often reach 14 per cent without difficulty.
Another characteristic is unusually high extract
levels. The total Montalcino zone covers about
60,000 acres of extremely hilly acreage in the
southern part of the Chianti zone, but the terrain
is so rocky that only about 5000 acres can be
cultivated, and only about half this acreage is
planted to Brunello, without any possibility of
expanding the vineyard area. The zone’s generally
warmer climate and brilliantly luminous sunshine
typically create rich, lush, concentrated fruit,
which moderates the sometimes obtrusive acidity of
the Sangiovese grape. But Montalcino’s grapes
rarely over-ripen because cooling winds are quite
strong at the high elevations where the vines grow.
In contrast to this uniformly good weather, the
region’s soils are quite diverse, with the area in
the north and east of the DOCG high in clay and
volcanic materials, producing wines of perfume,
finesse and elegance, the western part of the zone
chalkier, with gravel and marl, producing highly
structured wines, and the soils in the center and
south noted for their high proportion of
“galestro”, or calcareous stony soils, which are
prevalent further north in Tuscany’s Classico
region and produce wines of great richness. Many
producers like to blend from among these various
soil types as they feel it produces a better
balanced, more harmonious Brunello, although there
are some outstanding single vineyard designated
wines as well, that many critics feel are the
highest expression of the DOCG.

The maturation
requirements for Brunello have been somewhat
controversial in recent years, with many local
voices raised in opposition to the now mandatory 2
years in cask, regardless of vintage conditions.
The argument is that there are some years where the
wines are lighter and would suffer from having to
spend two years in wood. In fact, it was only in
1998 that the minimum legal cask aging went from
three years down to two (covering wines from the
1995 vintage), although current regulations still
mandate that the release date is the same as
before, no earlier than the fifth year after the
harvest. This stipulation gives the big wine plenty
of time to harmonize, and also has the effect of
creating anticipation in certain years. As Brunello
is always the last wine to be released, there have
traditionally been strong expectations awaiting the
wines’ arrival. For instance, while we are drinking
2003 whites from New Zealand and 2000 reds from
California, the 1998 Brunello di Montalcino have
just hit our shores.

Less controversial
in Montalcino than elsewhere in Italy has been the
relatively recently introduced practice of aging
some wines in new French oak barriques rather than
in larger neutral containers (locally called
“botti”) of primarily Slovenian origin. Some
producers use barriques, others don’t, and still
more adjust their mix of practices based on vintage
considerations, but since the flavor profile of the
wine lends itself easily to a wide range of
techniques (the principal point being that the
wines are so intense there is little danger of
their being overpowered by new oak flavors),
Brunello winemakers are not engaged in divisive
rhetorical squabbling about the advisability of one
protocol versus another. The development of new,
more perfectly ripened clones of Sangiovese Grosso
in particular has been cited as a factor that
permits the barrique-aging regimen, because the
wines now are able to support more intense oak
phenolics without being swamped in tannin. There is
also much less ideological lamentation from the
press over potential loss of traditional identity
and uniqueness with respect to Brunello di
Montalcino (perhaps in part because the wines are
of such recent origin) than one often hears
regarding changes affecting classic European wine
zones such as Piedmont or the Northern Rhone
Valley. If an international style of red wine is
emerging some feel obliterates uniqueness and
homogenizes wines into a similar flavor profile,
fewer voices appear to be raised against it here.
In any case, the practice of barrique aging
Brunello seems to be increasing.

There has been
somewhat more controversy, however, surrounding the
regulations about how long the wines must age. A
major change occurred beginning in the 1995
vintage, with a reduction of wood maturation from a
mandatory three years to two. Debate has now
centered on proposals to reduce the period further,
but there is resistance to change among some of the
top producers who feel that this would be a
shortsighted compromise of the wine’s traditional
style to meet current market demands. The important
point, and this is in keeping with the general
philosophy affecting Italian wines from other
prestige appellations, is that the overall length
of aging has not been reduced, so that the
mandatory time in bottle before sale has actually
been lengthened. A consensus has emerged that
bottle aging mellows big red wines and increases
their drinkability and nuance upon release, whereas
a lengthy sojourn in wood can potentially dry out
the fruit.

Perhaps a further
key to Brunello’s reputation is its point of
difference compared to all of the other great
classified Tuscan wines – it’s 100% Sangiovese,
without any blending whatsoever. Because it’s often
more fleshed out and less angular than Sangiovese
from elsewhere in the region, it’s a badge of pride
not only for the zone, but for all of Italy. This
practice had come under attack in some quarters
during the 1990s, but the brilliant success of the
wines, in both the domestic and the export markets,
has silenced the debate for now among those who
were advocating the legal addition of other grape
varieties. This is due in some measure to the
clonal improvements that have been noted, and the
more flexible aging requirements, but also, without
question, to the string of very fine vintages, of
which 1997 is only the most famous. The Consorzio
rates each of the vintages according to their
quality potential, and in the last several years
they have awarded the top ratings of 5 stars to two
vintages (1995 and 1997), 4 stars three (1998, 1999
and 2001) and 3 stars to two (1996 and 2000). These
numbers can be misleading as they don’t take into
account the style of the wines. For instance, the
1996s are wines which are brilliantly forward and
were delicious upon release, and the 1999s are
reputed by insiders to be as strong in many cases
as the fabled 1997s, and in fact more classically
balanced. 2000, which experienced a withering heat
wave that tended to stress the vines and overripen
some of the grapes (irrigation remains illegal in
Montalcino despite having been ratified as an
emergency option in Chianti Classico) will produce
much less wine than average, by about 10 to 15%, so
those that are bottled will probably be the cream
of the crop. Unfortunately, prices for Brunello
have risen relentlessly since the release of the
great 1990s in 1995, following this run of
generally terrific harvests and the resulting
strong demand. Brunello’s good luck streak, it
should be noted, ran out in 2002, which will be
difficult overall in Tuscany, and in particular in
Montalcino, due to uncharacteristically heavy rains
near harvest.

Note should be
taken of the generally excellent quality of the
Rosso di Montalcino DOC wines during this period,
and the extent to which their wines remain modestly
priced. Because of the mandatory
“de-classification”, Rossos from a great house are
often spectacular in a great vintage, and they can
be extremely good in lesser years (when the house
makes little if any Brunello, and uses their best
grapes for Rosso production). Of course this also
means that less scrupulous producers can
indiscriminately vinify and label the majority of
their wine with the more famous name and higher
price tag every harvest if they chose to do so
because they are allowed to make 70% of it as
Brunello – but in practice this has not generally
been a major problem. As is in keeping with our
demand for other wines, such as Champagne and Port,
the American market is extremely loaded in the
direction of the more expensive products. Rosso di
Montalcino is not as vibrant a category here as
Brunello is. In fact, it is considerably rarer,
while costing only a fraction of the price. Rosso
typically bottles only about half of the amount of
wine on average as its more illustrious sibling. It
can represent spectacular value at a price that is
generally about a third as expensive. Generally a
lighter wine, and in the hands of some producers a
much lesser wine, the Rosso produced at the top
estates is often incredibly good because it’s wine
of top quality that cannot be used in the Brunello
because of the mandatory minimum 30% that must be
bottled under another name. Rosso can excel in poor
vintages where the reputation and price commanded
by Brunello does not justify bottling more than a
fraction of the normal production. In addition,
there are wonderful vintages – 1995, 1997 and 1999
among them – where outstanding conditions ripened
all of the grapes beautifully, despite the fact
that some must be matured earlier and sold at a
lower price. These wines seem particularly relevant
in today’s cost conscious market, and they also
represent an opportunity for restaurants to pour a
wine from Montalcino so that diners can gain an
understanding of the style of the commune’s wines
without having to splurge on a bottle. At the other
end of the spectrum, the Brunello Riserva and “cru”
single vineyard designations are usually of
extremely high quality and produced in minuscule
amounts, commanding commensurately elevated prices.
Some producers don’t use the Riserva designation
though, as their feeling is that all of their wines
are of reserve level quality and the longer minimum
wood aging only detracts from their
quality.

The prospects for
Montalcino in the immediate future are somewhat
cloudy given the price structure and the increasing
devaluation of the dollar versus the Euro, a
situation which does not appear to be likely to
reverse at any time in the near future. Although
producers are cognizant of the American market,
there are a string of very strong vintages in the
pipeline, and with relatively small quantities to
sell and an overheated press, there does not appear
to be much incentive to cut prices. Perhaps this
represents an opportunity for us to become more
familiar with Rosso di Montalcino, and to
understand that these wines can represent
extraordinary value, which are actually quite
flexible with a variety of dining
choices.