2018 Montalcino. Dancing on thin ice.

Finding the good between the bad and the ugly.

2018 in Montalcino is a bloody mess.

Quantity was compromised by constant rain in May: producers had to work really hard in the vineyard to prevent fungal diseases and to open the canopy for extra sunlight and wind air flow. Then, quality was compromised by intermittent rain in August and September, which diluted the flavours and created harvesting problems.

The wines are not showing that well. Some already look and taste old: garnet colours and weird meaty tertiary notes, shy noses followed by heavily extracted or over-diluted mid-palates. By law 10% of another vintage can be added and it wouldn’t surprise me if the choice of doing so disrupted the balance of some wines especially in the tannic structure. Even bottles that on paper would score outstanding ratings are so constructed that it seems like this vintage saw no rain at all. This makes it easier to spot those who did a great job. Here are some of them.

Montosoli producers, especially Fattoria del Pino and Canalicchio di Sopra, managed to expose the classic “minerality” of the Grand Cru of Montalcino. Very few decided to work on primary fruit but to my surprise Fattoria dei Barbi and Tenuta Corte Pavoni seem to lead the way. Wines that played the card of extraction badly lost this round; Cupano won with its elegance by reducing the quantity of new oak. Meanwhile Caparzo Vigna La Casa focused on oak integration: the characteristic dark chocolate note is replaced by a delicious white Magnum ice cream. Many winemakers forgot the importance of the pinot-noiresque traits that sangiovese can achieve, except for Le Potazzine. Consistency remains important: Sanlorenzo and Banfi Poggio alle Mura nailed it again.

2018 made producers in Montalcino ask themselves more questions than they expected. How do I read this vintage? What kind of style does my estate represent? What is my idea of Montalcino compared to my peers? Nonetheless the Consorzio has rated this vintage with four stars out of five and we all know what that means: the prices will stay high. 

Eventually it all comes down to talent. And in the category of talent one wine stands out to me more than the others.

2018 Brunello di Montalcino, Sesti (tasted 17th November 2022)
Medium ruby with a garnet rim. Opens with a mix of herbs, sour cherry and graphite. It’s clean, defined but with a rusty note that changes the mood. Smells like fresh fish and raw pasta, a bit like crab ravioli. The palate paints the vintage like no one else: it’s tannic but fresh, the finish is long, but the mid-palate is diluted. I can taste the rain and Montalcino but most of all the competence of Sesti.