A BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO (LE LUCÉRE 2015) ON WINE SPECTATOR’S INTERNATIONAL PODIUM. THE TOP-RANKING ITALIAN WINE

A BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO (LE LUCÉRE 2015) ON WINE SPECTATOR’S INTERNATIONAL PODIUM. THE TOP-RANKING ITALIAN WINE

BINDOCCI (CONSORZIO): A VICTORY FOR THE ENTIRE APPELLATION. 2015 A GREAT YEAR BUT AS OF JANUARY IT WILL BE SHARING THE SPOTLIGHT WITH THE EXTRAORDINARY 2016

(Montalcino - SI, 10 December 2020). Third place in the Wine Spectator Top 100, the ranking of the world's finest wines, drawn up every year by the most influential American trade magazine in the world, announced today, goes to a Brunello di Montalcino. The name of the winner will be announced tomorrow, but in the meantime, San Filippo's Brunello di Montalcino Le Lucére 2015 is the top-ranking Italian wine.

President of the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino Fabrizio Bindocci says: “We are delighted with this acknowledgement because it will give a considerable boost to the entire appellation. Our congratulations go to an estate, San Filippo, which, in keeping with our finest tradition, has been pursuing absolute quality for a long time. And we are also especially proud of our 2015 vintage, which has enabled us to limit losses in this tragic year. It is a product with astounding and possibly unprecedented average quality” he added, “but it is going to have to share the spotlight with the 2016 vintage that we believe to be extraordinary even before it goes on sale”.

One hundred and twenty-eight 2015 Brunello di Montalcino wines have obtained the highest awards this year from seven of the main Italian wine guides (Ais Vitae, Bibenda, Cernilli, Gambero Rosso, Slow Wine, Touring and Veronelli); this result has few precedents in the modern history of wine rankings. But the 2016 vintage, on release from January, promises unprecedented in-house competition between two consecutive vintages. According to Bindocci: “The international critics who have had the chance to taste the new vintage for the first time in recent weeks are already divided as to which one is the best. We at the Consortium simply acknowledge that never before have there been two consecutive vintages of this level in Montalcino, and perhaps it is no coincidence that they have arrived now”.

The challenge between the vintages is already underway: on one hand, Hong Kong-based American, James Suckling, one of the world's most influential wine critics, who has just included eleven Brunellos in his latest top 100, says: “2016 would have been the greatest vintage ever for Brunello if it weren't for 2015”. On the other hand, super-expert Monica Larner, leading writer for Robert Parker and The Wine Advocate, in giving two estates in Montalcino scores of 100/100, has admitted her weakness for 2016, going so far as to complain of being “spoiled for choice due to the presence of so many excellent wines”. Out of the 163 wines reviewed by Monica Larner, about half achieved scores at tasting of 95/100 and over. The contest between vintages continues in one of the most authoritative online magazines, Vinous, where Eric Guido describes both of them as the “Renaissance of Montalcino, for an appellation that I have never seen so alive as it is today”, while USA Wine Enthusiast ranks a 2015 Brunello third in the world's top 100.

Owner of the San Filippo estate, Roberto Giannelli, from Florence, worked in property trading until about twenty years ago. He had begun to approach the world of wine while visiting several wineries with friends. Then, in 2003, a coincidence brought him to Montalcino for the first time. “I had been asked my opinion in relation to putting the San Filippo estate on the market, and whether I knew anyone who might be interested in taking it over,” says Giannelli on the Consortium's official website, “and I ended up buying it myself. Obviously, it has been far from easy. I was 37 years old and we are talking about 22 hectares, 10 of which are vineyards. But the banks were helping people back then and I had the support of several producers. And, besides, I had simply fallen in love with Montalcino. So I gave up my holdings and launched myself into the wine world, taking on the challenge posed by one of the most prestigious wine regions of all.”.