TN: Basque and Baby Brunello

The title of your post caught my attention in a hurry until I noticed who posted it. We have had some strange trolls lately who claim to mix various body fluids with food and wine. I at first thought we had the most extreme troll yet who was a cannibal and drank Brunello while eating a Basque person. Not really, but this was too good to pass up :-)

My baby Brunello comment brings to mind a question I had. Recently the (always hyperbolic) Carolina Wine Company included this in an offer:

"2002 Sesti Rosso di Montalcino $19.99/ $16.99 case If you want to experience a bit of the magic here – at an even better price, we have a small allocation of Sesti’s beautiful 2002 Rosso di Montalcino. All de-classified Brunello. A deliciously rich, smooth and pure sangiovese. And a bargain. "

So, isn't all Rosso di Montalcino basically declassified Brunello? Brunello clone grapes that are aged less? Or is there vine-age restrictions that make this Rosso notable? I guess the other thing they might mean is that Sesti is not making a Brunello di Montalcino in 2002, so all of the grapes typically used for the Brunello are going in the Rosso.

Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

Both Brunello di Montalcino and Rosso di Montalcino must be made from Brunello grapes, but each has an individual DOC with somewhat different rules. The rules are more strict and difficult to meet for Brunello. A basic Brunello must be aged 4 years and a Riserva 5 years, for example. Grapes must be in very good condition to make a wine that can benifit from this extra long age requirement for Brunello. Thus many will make a Rosso rather than a Brunello from grapes that produce wine that can not benefit from the long age. Likewise, in a borderline year, many may make only a basic Brunello, but not a Riserva, because the extra age required for the Riserva might dry out or otherwise harm the wine.

There is a parallel situation for Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Rosso di Montepulciano, with the DOC rules for the Vino Nobile being more strict.

Not quite true: In theory, any Brunello reaching the age of five can be labelled as Riserva; there no legal need for extended cask ageing (minimum for Brunello: two years) for Riserva.

But you are certainly right for good producers who decide early whether they will have a Riserva (and age it separately).

M.

??? Are you sure about that Michael? I thought three years in cask was required for the Riserva designation in Italy. Or is that only in certain parts of Italy (Chianti)?

Tom S

The DOC rules for Brunello may have changed a bit over the years. I believe the regular must still be aged for 4 years and the riserva for

1. However I think I remember reading that part of this time now may be in glass rather than all in barrel.

However it seems that at one time Brunello had to be aged in wood for 4 years for the basic wine and 5 years for the riserva. An interesting quote from Burton Anderson's 1980 edition of Vino leads me to this belief.

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"The subpar 1973 vintage, which was widely distributed, represented wines that simply could not stand up to the four or five years (for riserva) in barrel required by DOC. The 1973s were not very good to begin with, and by 1980 most bottles had dried up."

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The Italian DOC laws often seem more complicated than even the German ones. Perhaps someone has offical copies of these laws for both now and in the past and could give a summary of how they changed over the years for Brunello, if they did.

Yes.

No. It very much depends on the DOC. For most (if not all) whites Riserva means 1 year. For Chianti Classico, it's 2 years, beginning with January 1 after the harvest, of which a minimum in bottle of 3 months is required. NB: No minimum cask ageing is required, only the age of the wine counts.

For Brunello, 5 years is the minimum, also starting with January

1, so for the 1999 Annata the legal release date was Jan 1, 2004. The cask ageing period - formerly at 3,5 years - has been lowered to 2 years a few years ago. Again, there is a minimum of 3 months in the bottle before release.

Brunello Riserva needs 6 years, of which 2 years have to be cask ageing and 6 months in the bottle.

M.

As far as I know, RdM is a D.O.C. to help the vinters to maintain the quality of BdM more easily. Since RdM is available as a D.O.C. the vinters can "degrade" their vintage to RdM without loosing quality on BdM while still being financially on the save side. When the vintage is bad, there is lots of RdM and not so much BdM. When the vintage is excellent there is more BdM and less RdM.

As said, this is the samen voor Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Rosso di Montepulciano. But also for Barolo and Langhe Nebbiolo.

ciao, gio