WINE SEARCHER

Biondi Santi Writes Off the 2014 Brunello ... The inventors of contemporary Brunello di Montalcino have bowed to the weather and cancelled the 2014 vintage. One of Tuscany’s top producers has announced that they will not be releasing any Brunello di Montalcino wines from the 2014 vintage.
The Biondi Santi family, which more or less invented the sought-after wine style, has blamed the poor harvest for the decision to bottle only a Rosso di Montalcino from last year’s vintage.

“It’s a matter of seriousness, which is part of our history, when the vintage goes wrong, we do not make [Brunello di Montalcino],” Jacopo Biondi Santi told Italy’s Wine News website.
“And, therefore, all the grapes we had selected to produce Brunello di Montalcino will be used to produce the Rosso di Montalcino instead.”
The 2014 harvest was one of the most difficult of recent years in Italy. A mild winter accelerated the growing cycle, causing a premature onset of ripening. The unusually cool summer that ensued then slowed it down. There was also persistent rainfall across the country that hampered ripening and led to widespread vine disease. Tuscany was particularly badly affected.
The decision is in keeping with the tradition of Biondi Santi, which has carved a reputation for a quality-first approach. The winery’s 1955 Brunello di Montalcino Riservawas the only Italian wine chosen among the 12 best wines of the 20th Century by Wine Spectator.
The decision to downgrade grapes to Rosso level has been done before by Biondi Santi, when necessary, but it adds to the already great expectations for the 2010 Biondi Santi Brunello hitting the market this year, and for the reserve version that will follow. “They are magnificent wines, we did with my father Franco,” Biondi Santi said.
Franco Biondi Santi died in 2013, aged 91, and built on the winery’s reputation as the home of Burnello di Montalcino. His grandfather Ferrucio is credited with inventing the style in the late 19th Century. Unlike other growers of the time, Ferrucio vinified hisSangiovese grapes separately from other varieties. His pure, high-quality Sangiovese became something of a novelty. His wines were also noticed to be livelier and fruitier than most other wines, something he achieved by forgoing the second fermentation, which was also standard procedure among his contemporaries.
Biondi Santi’s wines became world famous when they were served to Queen Elizabeth II in 1955, sparking mass coverage in the press and kickstarting a sudden frenzy of vineyard replanting in Montalcino as canny growers climbed on the bandwagon.
The decision to announce a no-Brunello vintage is likely to prompt other producers to follow suit. One unnamed producer told Wine Searcher in October that it would not be making a reserve wine. A grower said at the time that many estates were simply skipping the vintage entirely, but Biondi Santi have been the first prominent estate to come out and publicly announce that was the case.