Italy

2017:The surprising freshness of a warm vintage:
The 2017 vintage is classified among those with hot and dry climates, when the vines sought out and found a natural and surprising way to adapt to quite extreme conditions for the area of Montalcino. During this hot and drought-like year, the biggest challenge was to maintain the enjoyability, freshness and purity of the fruit. The evolution of the weather and agronomic conditions was a continual challenge to interpretation and fear culminating in a great sigh of relief at the end of August when the rains came and provided balance to the vines and fruit, giving them the chance to benefit from the optimal conditions in the twenty days before the harvest, the most important and crucial. The three weeks preceding the harvest were, in fact, those of a GREAT VINTAGE, with mild temperatures during the day and even cooler at night, elevated temperature ranges and dry and favourable days alternated with a bit of rain which was immediately dried up by the wind.
This vintage gave us further confirmation that the greatest vintages come when the perfect conditions are created before the harvest, and this is what happened in 2017. This resulted in a wine of great personality, generous on the nose, enfolding and sensual, which amazes with its freshness in the mouth and its surprising balance making it a wine of great pleasure. Fire and ice, sweetness and sapidity, balsamic and fruity, a mix of ingredients which gives this vintage an extreme pleasantness but also it the seriousness of a great Brunello di Montalcino. The 2017 Brunello di Montalcino DOCG is a continual contrast between the hot and cooler parts of the year: the freshness in the mouth is contrasted by the sweeter opulence and fullness on the nose. Elegant and silky tannins which give depth and vibration to the wine. The acidity, perfectly integrated in the alcohol content lends itself to the prospect of ageing well in the bottle.