The Castello Romitorio Brunello di Montalcino Filo di Seta Riserva 2016 was one of the most powerfully structured Brunellos from 2016 that James tasted all year. (Composite photo by JamesSuckling.com with background image from @filippocastelloromitorio)
A special Brunello di Montalcino 2016 Riserva leads this review of what we tasted over the last 11 days of the year: the Castello Romitorio Brunello di Montalcino Filo di Seta Riserva 2016. It was one of the most powerfully structured Brunellos from the 2016 I encountered all year and highlights the intensely tannic wines the vintage produced.
The Fio di Seta Brunellos are from a single plot of the 16.5 hectares of vines that Castello Romitorio owns. It has three very old clones of sangiovese, and combined with its varied soils of clay, limestone and loam, it makes very structured wines. It’s interesting to note that I have always given high scores to this Brunello, with the first vintage, 2010, receiving 98 points. The Castello Romitorio Brunello di Montalcino Filo di Seta Riserva 2016 is a barrel selection of the best production from this unique vineyard.
“During the lockdown we had lots of time to reflect, taste, discuss, and metabolize,” Filippo Pietro Maria Chia, one of the owners of the estate, wrote in an email last week. “In this profound soul-searching process we decided to try something new yet again. Therefore we made a barrel selection of the finest tonneau of Filo di Seta and decided to age this a few months more in oak.”
Senior Editor Stuart Pigott wrote to me saying that he was stunned by the great precision, intensity and beautifully integrated oak of the 2019 dry whites from Fritz Wassmer in the Baden wine region. The three chardonnays he tasted are game-changing wines for this grape in Germany. Almost as striking were the three single-vineyard 2018 spatburgunder (aka pinot noir) from Solveigs in the Rheingau, although they have no perceptible oak.
We also rated the new release of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild’s wine from China’s Shandong peninsula. The Long Dai Qiushan 瓏岱丘山 2019 is a complete wine with slightly riper and richer tannins and more fruit than the fantastic 2018. The vintage was a little drier and warmer in 2019 and highlights the recent change in the climate, which used to have very damp weather in July but now has turned toward the dry side. Check out our just-released Top 100 Wines of China 2021 report to see where Long Dai sits compared with the other top wines of the country.
Otherwise, there’s mostly 2019 Bordeaux in this report as we review hundreds of samples here in our tasting office in Hong Kong. My impression from our tastings so far is that the quality is slightly inconsistent with the smaller producers from lesser appellations, while St. Emilion and Pomerol made some really fantastic wines. I have not rated many top names from Pessac-Leognan or the Medoc so far. Stay tuned. For this report, we rated 384 wines in total, with an average score of 91.
READ MORE: OUR TOP 100 WINES OF 2021
Tasting Editor Jo Cooke wanted to point out in this report that he tasted some “fun” sparkling Italian wines from the region of Lake Garda, Lugana. He also liked the look of the bottles. He described the Perla del Garda Lugana Millesimato 12 Brut Nature 2012 as “crisp and fresh with some complexity.” It’s made from trebbiano!
We look forward to comparing notes on wines in 2022, and I and the rest of the team at JamesSuckling.com would like to wish you a very, very Happy New Year!
– James Suckling, Chairman/Editor
The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.
Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.
