2019 San Polino Brunello di Montalcino Riserva

The estate’s Riserva is only produced in years of incomparable greatness, or when there is a particularly compelling story to tell. The previous vintage, 2017, fell into the latter category, while 2019, conversely, celebrates an unequivocally superlative year. It leads with a heady mixture of clove, vanillin and coriander before distinct mineral notes take hold. The palate is still somewhat muddled after long ageing in Slavonian oak casks, though properly youthful. Taut yet concentrated with thrilling tension, it vibrates with frisky acidity. Well extracted clayey tannins demand at least a couple of years in the cellar. (MM)

San Polino is our direct import and my favorite Brunello producer in the program, and this is the wine the estate makes only when a vintage earns it. 2019 earned it. Luigi Fabbro and Katia Nussbaum have farmed their isolated hill southeast of Montalcino organically since 1991, among the first in the appellation to do so, and have gone further than almost anyone into the life of their soils, down to the microbes. The cellar is non-interventionist in the way that actually works: spontaneous fermentation in 35-hectolitre truncated-cone oak vats, three days of cold soak and 42 days on the skins, six months of bâtonnage in French barriques and four years in large Slavonian and French oak. The fruit is from the south-facing vineyard at 450 metres above the house, sandy loam and volcanic soil threaded with marl. Just 3,800 bottles were made. In the glass, it pours a lustrous mid-to-deep ruby. The nose is exuberant and exotic: raspberry sliding into cranberry and wild strawberry, dog rose and violet, orange peel, juniper, a cool thread of eucalyptus and pipe tobacco, clove and ginger. On the palate, it is medium-to-full-bodied and dramatically long, silky on entry and then gravelly, the tannins fine-grained and firm, with blood orange, star anise and a flinty mineral resonance that keeps building after the fruit has gone. Suckling gave it 98 and a place in his Top Wines of Italy, Jancis Robinson 18 and called it stunning, O’Keefe 96. Riservas of this pedigree from this vintage sit at $150 and up on our shelf; this one is $99.99 because we bring it in ourselves. Three hours in a decanter tonight with lamb and rosemary, or cellar it until 2028 and drink it for twenty years.