Andrew Jefford reports on an exceptionally high-scoring tasting of 110 2021 Brunello di Montalcino wines shared with an expanded team of Bruno Besa, Michael Palij MW, and Anthony Rose in which enthusiasm ran high for what was clearly an outstanding vintage in Montalcino, with quality on a par with the 2019s.
Nature was generous to Montalcino in 2021—and Montalcino in turn was generous to us. In place of the 50 or so wines of each vintage we scrutinize on an annual basis for The World of Fine Wine, this tasting encompassed 110 different wines, demanding an expanded judging team of four tasters rather than three. Each taster devoted as much time as schedules permitted to ensure that every wine was tasted by at least two people, so you will find 220 notes below. Most of them, as will quickly become apparent, brim with enthusiasm. No fewer than 92 of the 110 wines scored an average of at least 89 points, signifying “very good wine, with some outstanding features” on our tasting rubric; 37 wines scored an average of 93 points or more (“outstanding wine of great beauty and articulacy”). There were eight individual scores of 97 or 98 points (“great wine of spellbinding beauty and resonance, leaving the drinker with a sense of wonder”) from team members Michael Palij MW and Bruno Besa. Our team’s average tasting score for 2021 is 92, matching our average for 2019 and exceeding that of 2020 by two points. Clearly, 2021 is an outstanding vintage in Montalcino.
Not that it was a serene vintage for growers. There were problems and stress points, but with hindsight those occasions had qualitative outcomes. The first and most serious—resulting in losses for some growers of up to one third of their crop—was spring frosts, most markedly on the night of April 7 but with further frost on the nights of April 8 and April 15. Lower-lying vineyards and those with poor air-drainage were, as usual, worst affected, whereas high-potential vineyards on slopes and at higher altitudes generally came through unscathed. There were also two significant rain events in late August—but summer had been a long and generally dry one. Even though these rain events came just before harvest for some growers, they were generally welcomed. Flowering had been even and regular; and most important, summer’s heat was tempered in 2021. July, for example, had no day where the thermometer exceeded 35°F (95°C), while August had only four such days. Nights, in general, were cool and brought respite, and September was a particularly beautiful month, interrupted only by a little freshening rain on the 16th, meaning growers had ample latitude to harvest whenever seemed most opportune.
One consequence of this wide ripening horizon is that 2021 is a vintage with stylistic amplitude. If you wanted to make a dark and sturdy Brunello for long aging, that was possible this year; if elegance and refinement were your goals, they, too, were attainable in 2021. “Some are more Burgundian,” as Michael Palij put it, “with red fruit to the fore, while the black fruit in others is more reminiscent of Bordeaux.” Anthony Rose suggested that these style differences reflected picking dates: “Producers who picked in early September appear to have produced balanced, fresh, and elegant styles, while those who waited for optimum ripeness achieved more power.”
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All origins shining
As we’ve found in previous vintage iterations, no single subzone dominated when it came to the 2021 wines our tasters enjoyed most. If we look at the top 12 wines (those scoring an average of 94.5 points or more), we find all quarters of the Montalcino compass covered. Yes, the sought-after northern zone is well represented, with wines from Terre Nere, Cortonesi La Mannella, Canalicchio di Sopra (Vigna Montosoli), and Caparzo (La Casa), but there are also four wines from the south (Uccelliera, Tenuta di Sesta, La Palazzetta, and Patrizia Cencioni), one from the high, wooded west (Luce), and the final three from the central part of the DOCG (Villa Poggio Salvi’s Pomona, Fattoria dei Barbi, and Tenuta Croce di Mezzo). Every vintage brings more and more single-vineyard iterations of Brunello, but the evidence of our tasting suggests that while these are often more characterful than the estate’s principal wine, they are not necessarily more ample, more complete, or more resonant.
Balance and structure
If you’re going to buy 2021 Brunello, what might you look forward to? Anthony Rose mentioned “a balance that makes the wines approachable early, yet with good aging potential,” while Michael Palij, too, wrote admiringly of their “exceptional balance.” I would echo this; 2021 is an enjoyable, unforbidding vintage, and the wines are smiling and welcoming, no matter what style they are crafted in, be it dark, rich, and dense, as in the case of Villa Poggio Salvi’s Pomona or the Vigna Montosoli from Canalicchio di Sopra, or light, aerial, and graceful, like the wine from Fattoria dei Barbi, La Palazzetta, or the beautifully aged Vigna Colombaiolo from Tassi. Balance lies at the core of that appeal, together with a growing season that left the fruit palpably unstressed. It was particularly gratifying to find few if any wines with the kerosene-like aromatic notes that trouble Sangiovese after a succession of heat spikes.
The grace and lack of laboriousness evident in the wine’s balance does not, however, mean that these wines lack detaining structure. Michael Palij referred to “sinewy, yet supporting tannins that enfold the fruit in a rustic veneer. Rather than detracting from the enjoyment, the phenolics firmly anchor the 2021s in Tuscany.” The point is well made, though personally I wouldn’t use the word “rustic” about any of the wines. (It doesn’t, indeed, appear in any of Michael’s tasting notes either, though Anthony Rose used the word three times and Bruno Besa eight times.) If we want to drink Brunello di Montalcino, it is because we want to drink Tuscan red-wine beauty in its grandest and most demonstrative guise, and this implies a structure, a bite, and a grip that are both difficult and rewarding and give the wines gastronomic aptitude. This grip is often less fruit-infused here than elsewhere, seeming to carry a woodland darkness within it—the local source of the inner seriousness that all truly great wines harbor and reveal with time. This, too, is well expressed in the versatile and complete Brunello di Montalcino 2021s.
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Bruno Besa on 2021 Brunello di Montalcino
Bruno Besa: We can all agree that 2021 produced some spectacular examples of Brunello di Montalcino. The wines are refined and transparent, with clear expressions of terroir. A growing uniformity of style is now evident across the southern Tuscan appellation, with most wines showcasing Sangiovese at its most polished, supported by exceptionally well-integrated oak.
Without detracting from the winemakers’ achievements, I suspect that the growing season played a key role in delivering such good balance, particularly in moderating the alcohol levels.
I sincerely hope that this vintage will help the wines of Montalcino navigate the very challenging conditions currently facing the global fine-wine market.
Michael Palij MW on 2021 Brunello di Montalcino
Michael Palij MW: In early 2022, I remember racing down to Montalcino just after Benvenuto Brunello 2020 in eager anticipation of tasting the infant 2021s from cask. Inchoate as the wines were, the intoxicating aromas, vibrancy, and exceptional balance were already obvious even at that early stage. Tasting them confirmed my initial impressions: These are utterly delicious wines, and it’s a vintage to buy with confidence.
The perfect climatic conditions (a touch of spring frost to reduce yields, a hottish summer punctuated by rain to encourage sugar accumulation, and a cool September to add complexity) ripened Sangiovese to absolute and elevated perfection. Although there is much to like, the aromatics take center stage and show why Brunello, in a great vintage, gently pulls ahead of Vino Nobile and Chianti Classico.
Some are more Burgundian, with red fruit to the fore, while the black fruit in others is reminiscent of Bordeaux. The best have both, and these are often supported by exotic notes of tobacco, rose, soy, cinnamon, and incense. Alongside the sensuous bouquet of many wines can be found sinewy yet supporting tannins that enfold the fruit in a rustic veneer. Rather than detracting from the enjoyment, the phenolics firmly anchor the 2021s in Tuscany. These are complex rather than polished wines, and they need food to really light up the occasion.
Criticisms are few: some showed more VA than was needed; oak can still be more generous than necessary; and others were warm, sturdy examples that lacked complexity. The vast majority, however, were truly glorious, and the best are sans pareil from a vintage that has no rivals until at least 2025.
Anthony Rose on 2021 Brunello di Montalcino
Anthony Rose: When we tasted the 2020s last year, we didn’t go overboard, despite the critical acclaim from elsewhere. 2020 had followed an excellent vintage in 2019, and 2021 was already being hailed as potentially great. In hindsight, it is as well that we left ourselves some headroom, because this tasting confirms that it is a better vintage across the board for this exalted Tuscan denomination than 2020 and possibly even 2019.
After April frosts, the growing season in 2021 was much more even than had been the case in 2020: warm and dry and without the excesses of heat or rain. Harvest weather was excellent, so producers were able to choose when to start harvest. As a result, variations were as much in style as in quality, because producers who picked in early September appear to have produced balanced, fresh, and elegant styles, while those who waited for optimum ripeness achieved more power.
The best of the wines have carried off the trick of fragrant aromatics, expressive fruit flavors and concentration, and elegant textures with the support of a structure of tannic finesse and firm acidity—all of which bring a balance that makes the wines approachable early, yet with good aging potential. In these wines, there is no overt oak, but it is present as part of the structure rather than the flavor.
They say that a rising tide lifts all boats, but I wouldn’t say that the wines are quite as uniform as anticipated or that because of such a vintage you could stick a pin into a list of names and come up trumps. There is variation, with a number of wines failing, for whatever reason, to take full advantage of the beneficial vintage conditions. And in some wines, excessive alcohol or hollow fruit shows.
It’s worth pointing out here that the overall scores may have improved if the tasting had included a number of wines that were conspicuous by their absence—most notably Conti Costanti, Fuligni, Gaja Pieve di Santa Restituta, Il Marroneto, Ciacci Piccolomini, La Serena, Scopetone, and San Filippo Le Lucere; and the Biondi-Santi 2021 is not yet released.
For the most part, our scores reflect the general quality, and we are in agreement on a good many of the wines. Where we are not in agreement shows that it is possible for us, as apparent experts, to disagree with one another over style and even, occasionally, over quality. But when we taste blind, we don’t confer, and we are honest. WFW readers are grown-ups and encouraged to make their own judgment of our assessments.
To view the panel’s reviews of the wines of the 2021 Brunello di Montalcino vintage, sign-up for access to the WFW tasting note database or subscribe to The World of Fine Wine.
