Our Brunello tastings in both Tuscany and our Hong Kong office over the past year mostly focused on the 2018 vintage, which will be released on the market beginning in January 2023, and many of the wines we tried show excellent balance and drinkability. But they clearly are not at the same level as those from the great 2015 and 2016 vintages. The season was cooler compared with a string of warmer vintages in the last decade, and many producers we spoke to called it a “classic” vintage, more akin to vintages in the 1990s.
The fact is our tastings of 315 Brunellos revealed 2018 as a vintage of inconsistent quality. Some wines are extremely polished and well-integrated with bright, ripe fruit and fine, textured tannins. These wines are attractive to drink now but aren’t for long-term aging. Other 2018 Brunellos we rated show slightly unripe tannins and a lack of concentration in their center palates and length on the finish. The fact that a great winery such as Valdicava chose to not bottle a Brunello in 2018 highlights the above. So, be choosy when you are buying 2018 Brunellos.
In addition, we recommend going back into the market and buying any top-rated 2015 or 2016 Brunellos. The 2015s are particularly attractive because they drink extremely well now but will age beautifully for the future.
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“I think we can talk about 2018 as a regular and classic vintage,” Alex Bianchini, whose family has run Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona in Montalicino since the late 1800s, said during a Zoom interview. “We had a rainy spring until mid-June; July and August were not too hot.”
One of our three highest-rated 2018s is the Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Brunello di Montalcino Pianrosso 2018. While not a perfect wine like the 2015 vintage, it is intense and structured, with firm and seamless tannins – one of a few 2018s that will need some time to soften.
The 2018 vintage seems to be characterized by the diversity of vineyard sites around Montalcino. Some vineyards experienced isolated showers around harvest, while others had no rain whatsoever, such as those of San Polino and San Polo on the southeastern slope. San Polo winemaker Riccardo Fratton said that 2018 was one of the easiest harvests in the last few years. The season was not straightforward, though, especially for their organically farmed vineyards.
“We had rain in spring, and we had to work quite a bit, especially on the canopy,” Fratton said. “Bud fertility was high in 2018 so we had to thin quite a bit.”
The San Polo Brunello di Montalcino Vignavecchia 2018, made from vines planted on a warm, steeply west-facing vineyard, shows depth, complexity and structure, compared with the aromatic and more approachable Podernovi 2018, which is from their coolest site.
Despite the variations, all the producers we spoke to agree that 2018 was not as great a vintage overall as 2016 or 2015. Comparisons were made with 2008, 2013 (which had a hotter summer but, like 2018, cooler nights in the weeks leading to harvest) and cooler vintages from the 1990s.
“2018 for me reminds me of an older vintage style … than to wines like ‘15, ‘16, ‘19, ‘20, and ’21. These are all characterized by structure, complexity and also more fruit,” said Jacopo Bacci of Renieri. He agreed that there was more variation in the 2018 vintage, whereas “in 2015 and 2016, it was really hard to do a bad wine.”
Many of the best Brunellos in our tastings come from the magical hill of Montosoli, on Montalcino’s north side. Altesino, the pioneer of Montosoli “crus,” stands out with its intense, driven and complex Altesino Brunello di Montalcino Montosoli 2018. Characteristic of the vintage, it is already beautiful to try now but will reward time in the bottle. The 2017 Montosoli is equally impressive and classy and is one of the best wines of the hot and difficult vintage, but best approached after a couple more years. The 2018 and 2017 are both rated as highly as the 2016 and 2015, highlighting the complexity and quality of grapes from Montosoli in both great and challenging vintages.
The Caparzo Brunello di Montalcino Vigna La Casa 2018 is another standout, on par with 2016. It is full-bodied and powerful, with muscular, ripe tannins, an impressive feat for the vintage, which was produced from the five-hectare La Casa vineyard on Montosoli’s sunny, south-facing slope. Also of note is the inaugural bottling of the Canalicchio di Sopra Brunello di Montalcino Vigna Montosoli 2018, which, alongside their La Casaccia (bottled since 2015), comes from a separate site on the northern side of Montosoli.
Our highest-scoring 2018 Brunello is a new single-vineyard wine from Casanova di Neri. From a seven-hectare parcel of 50-year-old vines on the southeastern slope of Montalcino, the Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Giovanni Neri 2018 has beautiful ripe fruit combined with white pepper and white truffle complexity, framed by very fine, creamy and expansive tannins. Owner Giacomo Neri said that he much preferred 2018 over 2017, describing it as “a very balanced vintage.”
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We rated 75 Brunellos, mostly riservas, from the hot and dry 2017 vintage. Our tastings revealed some extremely big, dense and tannic wines, which need more time in bottle compared with other warm and ripe vintages like 2012. Nevertheless, we gave a few higher scores to 2017s, particularly where the 2018s showed some hollowness or a slight dilution. The two highest-scoring 2017s are Altesino’s Montosoli 2017, as mentioned above, and the Salicutti Brunello di Montalcino Sorgente 2017, a tiny production from organically grown grapes. A significant number of producers, including Fuligni, Renieri and Siro Pacenti, decided not to make a 2017 Riserva.
We also rated three dozen or so later-released Brunellos from the fantastic 2016 vintage. The best was Biondi-Santi’s Riserva 2016, which we tasted a few months ago with CEO Giampiero Bertolini. James described it as a “new classic” from Biondi-Santi, which has been making Brunellos since the last 1800s. It’s tight and linear but will need a few more years to unwind after its release in spring of 2023, and it also highlights the estate’s move away from slightly volatile and lean wines to fresher, brighter and better-structured Brunellos.
The Cerretalto vineyard of Casanova di Neri, a southeast-facing natural amphitheater with unique red clay and gravel soils.
A couple of other great late-released 2016s are the Capanna Brunello di Montalcino Nicco 2016 and Salicutti Brunello di Montalcino Teatro 2016. These will also benefit from more time in bottle and highlight the cellaring potential of 2016. Also check out the Castiglion del Bosco Brunello di Montalcino Zodiac Riserva 2015, which is among the top three wines in this report, alongside the Biondi-Santi Riserva 2016 and Casanova di Neri Giovanni Neri 2018.
Next year’s new Brunellos will be mostly 2018, which will certainly please many Italian wine lovers. And we tasted good wines from 2019, 2020 and 2021 from barrel last summer. It’s a good time to buy and drink Brunello, even if they all can’t be from the glorious 2015 or 2016.
– Claire Nesbitt, Associate Editor
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