Benvenuto (?!?) Brunello 2018

by Riccardo Viscardi 01/19/23 |

The vintage, cold and rainy, was difficult and it was known, but many wines lack the pathos of Brunello, with subtle flavor textures and outsized tannins. The quality of the "usuals" stands out further.

Born in the midst of pandemic, we like the new formula for presenting new vintages of Ilcinesi wines very much. Isolating ourselves from the Tuscan previews by bringing the tasting forward to November, allows invited tasters to have wide seats, fairly fast tasting times and the possibility of tasting all together well in advance of the release of Brunello, which we remember, kicked off this January 2023.

There is a rush by some "colleagues" to taste first; but the fault lies not with those who ask for samples but with the producers who send them. If among them are the high officials of the consortium we have to laugh about how to stop the phenomenon. The preview in the United States, a key market for Brunello di Montalcino, was also planned (and there was), so it seems to us inappropriate for the appellation to have had individual spoilers; it could be counterproductive and upset the local press, but evidently not everyone agrees with this opinion of ours.

The tasting venue is beautiful: bright, cool, spacious. The temperature of the wines, given the context, very good and the sommelier service almost ideal, would reach perfection with two sommeliers per table of six. Although the tasting time is shortened you manage to taste all the Brunello vintages, the relevant selections or vineyard and reserves in the two days of tasting. We did not taste the Rosso di Montalcino, the various Sant'Antimo and the Moscadelli, but no harm done, we will be back around February.

Before talking about Brunello 2018 one consideration: we noticed the absence of so many "fundamental" wineries in the appellation. Although the absentees are always wrong, the defection of important brands is growing year by year and this trend worries us. DoctorWine chose Sunday to fill in some of the gaps.

How are the 2018 Brunellos on average? Disappointing in the majority of products. After the good test of 2017, also a difficult vintage but well interpreted by the producers, the same cannot be said, unfortunately, of 2018, a cold, rainy and consequently generous year. The gap between "the usuals" and the rest of the ranks (the "wheel-suckers" mentioned years ago in one of our articles) is really wide and brings down the judgment of the vintage.

Wines with evolved colors and little intensity, very open smells on evolutionary notes about two months after release are worrisome. Thin flavor textures, outsized or evanescent tannins did not really convince us. Many products lack the pathos of Brunello.

Fortunately there are some very good Brunellos, a sign of attention, ability, awareness before knowledge; this confirms the greatness of the territory, it just needs to be respected, pampered and not exploited by scraping the bottom. Generally the southern area performed better, as can be guessed; but overall the big difference was made by individual producers.

One final thought: why so many selections or vineyards presented in this vintage? The total of this type of wine is marginal for the appellation but many would have contributed strongly to give a better Brunello 2018 rather than anonymous wines in their respective categories. One data point: those who produced excellent 2018 Brunellos said they had yields around 35-40 quintals per hectare; a major winery like Val di Cava did not even produce the 2018 Brunello. These data explain why the selections or vineyards of the "usual knowns" are very interesting and well made, so it was possible to make quality. I would not want the greed of some to become a problem for the appellation. In the world we will have more than 11 million pieces labeled Brunello 2018, in 2013 a fresh vintage of excellent quality were 10 and a half million, in 2017 9 million.

Below you will find indicated our best tastings between Brunello di Montalcino 2018, selections and vineyards, and Brunello Riserva from different vintages, but all released to the market during this 2023. We have not indicated scores, since we reserve further tastings for the publication of the next edition of the Essential Guide, but those indicated are all Brunellos of extraordinary level.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)