The vineyards of La Magia in Montalcino overlook the prehistoric lava domes of Monte Amiata.
Casks full of Brunello rest in the Tassi winery.
Fabio Tassi of Tassi winery in his fermentation room.
James tasting with Giancarlo Pacenti of Siro Pacenti, who made a stunning 2015 Brunello.
Small cellar of Mate winery holds barrels of Brunello.
Vineyards of sangiovese bask in the sun at Fuglini.
The 2015 Brunellos from San Polino are imposingly structured and profound.
Old casks lie in the simple cellars of Castelgiocondo.
Marie hugs one of the new concrete fermentation vats at Luce winery.
Luce Brunello 2015 shows great potential.
James tastes a small vertical of best years of Fuligni to compare with the new 2015.
Vincenzo Abbruzzese, owner of Valdicava, with some of his 2015 Brunellos.
Daniel Fabbro is part of the next generation of winemakers at San Polino winery in Montalcino.
Brunello ages peacefully in the small cellar of Fuligni.
Argiano's villa near Montalcino dates back to the late Renaissance and has recently been restored.
Argiano is releasing the inaugural vintage of a new cru, Vigna del Suolo. The grapes previously went into their Toscana IGT Suolo.
JamesSuckling.com organized an informal tasting and dinner with 2015 Brunellos for 42 producers.
Jack Suckling speaks to winemaker Carlo Ferrini at his small vineyard of Giodo.
Grilling some meat to pair with some young Brunellos.

My son Jack and I spent this past weekend tasting a few dozen 2015 Brunellos from top producers in Montalcino while visiting vineyards and cellars. We came away with a pretty awesome opinion of the vintage, which will be released in January 2020.

Jack and James tasting at Giodo with winemaker Carlo Ferrini.

We also organized a dinner for 42 producers at the Enoteca la Fortezza in Montalcino where winemakers brought bottles of their 2015 to share.

We’re planning a much larger and more serious sit-down tasting in a few weeks, but we can already say that 2015 is a great vintage. It will rank among the best recent vintages in the region, and will be compared to the likes of 2010, 2007, 2006, 2001, and 1997.

So many of the wines we tasted showed a beautiful depth of fruit and endless length. They are dense and rich wines, structured with masses of tannins yet finely textured and comprehensive in the mouth. The tannins seem to melt into the wine. I have never seen this before in a young vintage of Brunello and few other sangiovese-based wines.

There’s also a transparency and brightness to the best of 2015 that gives the reds a chance to beautifully communicate their respective terroirs and styles. This was particularly true in estate-specific and single-vineyard Brunellos.

Winemakers are extremely excited about the year and comment that the advances in viticulture and winemaking have given their 2015 wines much more balance and precision. The growing season was very hot but rains in May and July helped alleviate some of the heat stress, and the harvest in September was dry and warm.

We noticed a number of optical sorting machines in cellars that also may have helped with selecting the best grapes to make outstanding 2015 Brunellos. And most are reducing their new wood use and barrel use in view of making more clear and communicative wines.

It is tempting to declare the 2015 Brunello di Montalcino’s best vintage yet and it may well be. However, already a number of winemakers in the region are saying that 2016 is even better. From our tastings of the 2016 Brunellos we can say it is an excellent vintage, however, we think 2015 has more depth, length and structure. It’s more classic in style.

We want to taste more wines and talk to more winemakers before we say more.

– James Suckling, CEO/editor; and Jack Suckling, contributing editor

Travel log #9: First impressions of 2015 Brunello