My Article: First Impressions of 2006 Brunello

(IL BORRO, ITALY, JAN. 6, 2011) I am finishing my blind tasting of 2006 Brunello di Montalcino today at home in Tuscany, and I am very excited about the vintage. The wines are subtle, yet rich, structured, and powerful. This vintage is the new benchmark for the region — a modern 1997.

When you first taste these reds, you think that they are balanced and approachable with beautiful perfumes of cherries and flowers, along with refined palates of ripe tannins and rich fruit. If you give them a little air (I started flash-decanting each bottle before tasting), they start to show their muscular structure of powerful tannins and fresh acidity. These are wines that need a minimum of three to four years of bottle age before opening, but they will improve with age for decades to come.

On Monday, I left a number of my top wines opened overnight in the Montalcino tasting room of the producers’ association, Il Consorzio del Brunello di Montalcino, and I was amazed the next morning to find that the wines were even bigger and more powerful. Already, I have to wonder how the 2006 Brunello di Montalcino riservas are going to be next year. Many should be of incredible quality.

I have spoken to a number of the top Brunello producers in Montalcino, and they deem the 2006 their best ever. “It has to be our best vintage ever, if you compare the way we work in the vineyards and the cellars to 1997 or vintages before,” said Giancarlo Pacenti of the winery Sirio Pacenti.

It’s true. The progress and improvement in viticulture and in winemaking in the last decade has been impressive in Montalcino. This must be why I found so many small or new producers making outstanding Brunellos in 2006. Close to 200 names now bottle their own Brunello compared to a few dozen about 20 years ago — what a change.

In the final analysis, I am not sure that 2006 made many better top Brunellos than 2004, 2001, 1999, or 1997. But I am sure that the sheer number of outstanding and classic quality Brunellos is much higher in 2006. This makes it a better vintage than all the best years in Montalcino so far. 

We will see whether the 2007 in bottle is finally at the same level, or even better, but I have my doubts from barrel tastings. The growing season for 2006 was much more consistent with hot days and cool nights; in 2007, there were more heat spikes. This more stable weather as the grapes ripen is perfect for Sangiovese — the grape used in Brunello.

“Both years are great,” said Giacomo Neri of Casanova di Neri, always one of the top producers of Brunello every vintage. “We are lucky to have two back-to-back great years…the 2006 is a vintage for aging; it has such great balance and structure. The wines forever change in the glass. They seem to gain in body and structure in the glass when you taste them.”

In fact, I found the same thing when tasting these 2006 Brunellos. They change all the time in the glass, from being very aromatic and clean and almost timid, to full, rich and tannic. They are fascinating to taste. They are some of the most interesting young Brunellos I have ever tasted since I first started going to Montalcino in 1983.

However, I still have about 40 Brunellos to taste at home today. So let me go taste, and I will get back to you.