Mapping MONTALCINO

For a wine loving traveler there is no better month to visit Tuscany than September . Vendemmia ,  the wine harvest  is around the corner and the vineyards look at their best with bunches of grapes showing off their beautiful dark red and blu colors - known as Brunello in the case of Montalcino's famous Sangiovese varietal.  From early September you'll be able to see the first pickers in action, whilst they harvest Montalcino's rare patches of white wine grapes and French varietals like Merlot and Cabernet Franc. True to its importance, the Sangiovese Grosso grape is the last to be ready . The harvest o f the Brunello grape will start during the last days of September in the lower lying vineyards with southern exposition and during the first half of October in Montalcino's higher vineyards and North facing areas.   GOOD TO KNOW The approaching wine harvest turns jovial vintners who spend infinite hours in the wine cellar talking to ...

It's one thing to bring back a bottle of wine as a souvenir from Montalcino, and it's another to buy a case of Brunello to store away for the next five, ten or twenty years. In a vintage with the hot weather conditions of 2009 differences between Sangiovese grapes harvested and Brunello produced in Montalcino's wineries has been very marked. Many of the wines - notably the ones from the lower lying vineyards in the south west - are unlikely to last in time (but are all the more ready to be enjoyed right away).  Tim Atkin's Brunello Report is a good place to start for some advice on which wines to buy for early drinking and which ones for piling up in your cellar.  I've reviewed his Brunello Special Report 2008 last year and extremely liked Tim's in-depth approach to the judging of Montalcino's wine. His Brunello reports give you the wine writer's ratings (if you are into numbers), but also a lot of background information to understand the reasons be...

Towards the end of winter in the midst of February, Brunello town wakes up from hibernation. For two reasons: pruning: the vineyards are still resting, so it's high time to move in there with secateurs in hand to get things back into shape before spring is running havoc.  Benvenuto Brunello: Montalcino's most important event presents the freshly released Brunello  -  just count back five years to know which vintage will be on show (and six for Brunello Riserva) . The three days of tasting at the end of February bring the most important wine writers into town. In fact journalists, bloggers and wine critiques are flocking all through Tuscany, since during the same week the anteprima (preview or rather pretaste) of the Chianti Classico aka black rooster wines takes place in Florence and the one of Vino Nobile in Montepulciano. GOOD TO KNOW Benvenuto Brunello is organized every February by Montalcino's vintner association . The event...

With the wine world discussing the pros and cons of Brunello's 2008 vintage , the biggest surprise of this year's Benvenuto Brunello has been the five star rating awarded to the 2012 vintage , which will make its entrance on the wine stage in 2017.  Did anybody really expect a full five stars (the top vote) after such an incredibly difficult year? I'm no wine maker or tasting expert, but as the owner of a Tuscan vegetable garden I truly suffered my way through 2012's incredibly dry winter, spring and summer - in the company of my desperate looking greens and tomatoes. Luckily, vines react very differently to water shortage than your average vegetable or fruit, but still - five stars seem a lot.  Ready for tasting 2008 Brunello di Montalcino at Benvenuto Brunello 2013