One of the recurring themes over the last two years at SommSelect has been our abiding love of the 2014 red Burgundies. We’ve offered a lot of them. And as I look ahead, I suspect we’ll be doing the same with Brunello di Montalcino reds from 2013, which only started arriving in our market in earnest last year. Everything we’ve tasted from ’13 thus far has been fantastic—the wines displaying balance and aromatics reminiscent of the great 2010s—and today’s wine from Pietroso may be the best of the lot (so far, anyway).
My colleague Ian Cauble was especially fired up about it, proclaiming it one of the best Brunellos he’s had in a long time, and based not only on this wine but many others, expect to see a theme develop this year. Pietroso, a tiny, family-run estate on the western slopes of the Montalcino hill, is a great place to start, if you haven’t started acquiring ’13s already: This Brunello is simply impeccable in every way, not only seductive and approachable in its youth but showing pitch-perfect balance for aging. Producers refer to 2013 as a “classic” vintage—meaning not too rich, nor too lean, but just right. Take a quick jaunt through the critical press should you need confirmation: one publication used the word “radiant” to describe the wines, which is perhaps the perfect word to describe this one. So, I’m stealing it: This is radiant, seductively perfumed Brunello that effortlessly combines power with elegance. We have only enough to offer up to four bottles per customer today, and of course I wish it were more: Like Ian, I’m very excited about this wine (and the promise of others still to come)!
I’ll admit I hadn’t been familiar with Pietroso prior to our recent tasting, but they’re sure on my radar now: Located just minutes outside the hilltop town of Montalcino, the original Pietroso vineyard covered just one hectare and was farmed by Domenico Berni, who first made wines just for himself but eventually began releasing commercially in the mid-1970s. Today, Berni’s grand-nephew, Gianni Pignattai, runs the property (expanded slightly, to five hectares), with his wife and family. They farm three separate parcels, planted exclusively to Sangiovese, at altitudes ranging from 350 to 450 meters’ above sea level, with the vineyards used for Brunello averaging 30 years of age.
This is, as is clear once the wine is poured, a classically styled Brunello—it has the medium garnet hue one should expect from the Sangiovese grape, not the inkier cast some modern Brunellos display (usually from aging in smaller, newer oak barrels). Today’s 2013 first spent eight months in used, French oak tonneaux before being transferred to larger, 30-hectolier Slavonian oak botti for an additional 30 months. This was followed, of course, by a required period of aging in bottle before release.
Descriptions of the 2013 harvest in Montalcino describe one of the later picks in recent memory, notable for being consistently sunny and unaffected by rain, but also cool. Grapes were harvested in mid-October at optimal ripeness, producing very luminous, fragrant wines (in contrast to the burlier, chunkier produce of 2012). This wine’s bright garnet color announces a perfumed Sangiovese brimming with aromatic complexity and lively energy. Scents of red and black cherry, currants, blackberry, plum, anise, rose petals, underbrush, aromatic herbs, and sandalwood spice carry over to the fine-grained, medium-plus-bodied palate. The tannins are firm but very well managed, which is not to characterize this wine, at this point in its life, as a ‘pop and pour’ style. We revisited this wine over the course of 24 hours open and it just got better and better, fleshing out slightly and offering ever more aromatic intrigue. This has at least 10-15 years of positive evolution still ahead of it, with its likely sweet spot still a few years down the line. You will be deeply impressed by this wine if you open it now and give it an hour-plus to breathe in a decanter, but you’ll be blown away when you open one three or four years from now. It’s plain to see that this wine is going to be special. Serve it at 60-65 degrees in Bordeaux stems with beef, lamb, game birds, or vegetarian preparations focused on wild mushrooms. Attached is an example of the latter for your next Meatless Monday. Enjoy!
