For the first time since the nineteenth century, the Brunello harvest in Montalcino began in August

August 31 will no longer be a date like many for Brunello di Montalcino: for the first time in its history, in 2022 the Sangiovese harvest began in the middle of summer. Blame for climate change that cannot fail to be felt even on the Montalcino hill, historically “kissed” by the good luck of a mild and perfect temperature - as well as rich biodiversity - for the production of great wines. And, in fact, it is a historical record, as evidenced by the Tenuta Greppo Biondi-Santi, the winery where Brunello was born at the end of the nineteenth century, today owned by the Epi Group of the Descours family, where the 2022 harvest arrived earlier than ever since 1888, when Ferruccio Biondi Santi produced the first wine officially called “Brunello di Montalcino”. A primacy, moreover, is shared with many of the most famous wineries in Montalcino, so much so that, as Monica Soldera explains to WineNews, in Case Basse, one of the world’s wine icons and among the most quoted in major international auctions, “the harvest is already over, and we are in the process of making wine”. A curiosity that cannot fail to fascinate collectors, who are already thinking about the fine wines that will be born from this historic harvest, given that the brands in question are among the most desired in the world.
Even in Montalcino, this year’s temperatures have pushed producers to a harvest that will go down in history as the most anticipated ever. A not massive pick-up, but only of selected parcels of vineyards, underlined by Biondi-Santi, those in which the grapes showed an early and yet excellent level of ripeness after a very dry year, without rains and marked by high average temperatures. The rainfall that occurred in mid-August gave “breath” to the plants that have lived in a state of stress. The skin of the harvested grapes is thick and crunchy, the pulp is fresh, indicating excellent acidity, fundamental characteristics for long-living wines.
An early harvest that is the result of a 2022 vintage characterized by January, usually the time of year when the soil accumulates water reserves for the growing season, which was a cold but dry month, followed by a mild spring, with very little rain, which allowed a slow but homogeneous growth of the shoots. Since the end of May, temperatures of 30 degrees have already been recorded, more typical of the summer months. June and July instead marked peaks above 35 degrees. Nevertheless, the vineyard still benefited from a good temperature range between day and night, alongside increasingly careful care, the result of the long experience of the producers.