DESPITE THE DIFFICULT YEAR, BRUNELLO 2017 WILL HAVE 4 STARS. CONSORTIUM’S CELEBRATIVE TILE WILL BE AUTHORED BY THE ROCKSTAR AND WINEMAKER STING IN MONTALCINO ON FEBRUARY 17TH. AND, ON FEBRUARY 10TH STING WAS IN FLORENCE TO OPEN THE TUSCAN PREVIEWS

It was a very good year. The verdict is not yet official, but WineNews rumors say that the tasting commission, which met a couple of weeks ago in Montalcino, will assign 4 stars to the 2017 vintage of Brunello di Montalcino. And, for the first time, the tasting commission has also opened to the world of wine journalism. The commission has confirmed that the quality standard is high, if not very high, as wine companies are now capable of dealing with any kind of vintage. The trend in the vineyard in 2017, as we often wrote last summer, was anything but simple. Spring was within the seasonal average; followed, though, by a very hot summer, which anticipated all the ripening processes. The dry month of September provided optimal harvesting conditions. The vegetative season began at the normal time and spring was mild, very dry in April and May, followed by a mild June with no rainfall. Then, it was sunny for the whole month of July, which determined the initial water stress to the plants. Even the beginning of August was hot, but in the second half of the month it got even worse, as an anticyclone of African origin caused torrid temperatures well above the average for the period, which lasted two weeks. It caused great water stress, which accelerated ripening times. Things got back to normal in September as the few, good rains rebalanced ripening times, allowing for an early but optimum harvest.
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Meanwhile, the official and most awaited news is the signature on the tile celebrating the 2017. It will be Sting’s, the rock star and winemaker in Tuscany together with his wife Trudie Styler in their Tenuta il Palagio, who will hang the tile at Palazzo Comunale on February 17th, when Montalcino, at “Benvenuto Brunello 2018”, will unveil the 2013 vintage, the 2012 Riserva and the Rosso 2016, to the press and the public. That day, as WineNews reports, will see the presence of the Minister of Economy Pier Carlo Padoan and the Minister of Agricultural Policies, Maurizio Martina, both candidates for the next Italian general election. As Sting told the newspaper “Corriere della Sera”, his tile will be “a message that reflects the love and the unique light of Tuscany, and will remind people that music and Tuscany live in harmony”. So, It will be an “Englishman in Tuscany”, rather than in New York where he sang about feeling disoriented like a foreigner, to link his name to the 2013 vintage of Brunello, a wine that, as he said, in some ways “converted” him to the nectar of Bacchus. The laying of the tile will only be Sting’s last act during the events, as he will officially kick off the week of Previews of Tuscany, which will start as usual with BuyWine, in Florence, including the eleven small Consortia in Tuscany, and the meeting with buyers from all over the world.
Sting's tile, which is to be “planted” in the “open-air gallery” that narrates the quality of the vintages on the wall of the fourteenth-century Palazzo Comunale di Montalcino, will be added to those that in the past have been made by famous authors, such as the designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, from the Fiat Design Department, the stylists Cavalli, Prada, Missoni and Ferragamo, the painter Sandro Chia, the photographer Oliviero Toscani, the actor Peter Weller, the cartoonist Emilio Giannelli, the masters of the Japanese manga Tadashi Agi-Okimoto Shu, the Cruciani brand (author of the famous cult “braccialettino”), and, the latest, in order of time, is from the patron of Eataly Oscar Farinetti, the father of Slow Food Carlo Petrini and the guide to the most famous restaurants in the world, Michelin.