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by Raffaele Mosca

The lauded 2019 vintage of Brunello di Montalcino wins over the more divisive 2018 in the annual comparative tasting of the Roman press... but the difference is only 0.2 cents on average!

The difference between the 2018 and 2019 vintages is stylistic rather than qualitative: the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino is more graceful, the 2019 is more powerful and layered.

Those who knew how to manage both vintages well brought home a wine of innate elegance and great medium-range pleasantness in 2018 and a less concessional, tighter, but potentially very long-lived wine in 2019.

The less centered versions, however, present diametrically opposite problems: a little thin or marked by unbalanced tannins in the case of the first vintage; too dark, concentrated and alcoholic in the second.

In any case, the impression remains very strong that 2018 was globally underestimated. It also emerged in the comparison won hands down with the 2017 in the last edition.

TASTING

Now in its ninth edition, the challenge between the vintages (the last one to be released in January of the following year vs. the previous one) has become a classic for the sector press of the Capital and for some operators in the world of wine.

And so a group of people (journalists, buyers, restaurateurs, sommeliers) gather in Rome at the Osteria Poerio (which we thank for its hospitality) to face the blind tasting (not knowing either vintage or label) of a representative number of samples coming from Ilcinese producers to get an idea of what such an important denomination can express in the glass every time.

The date is December 14th, chosen to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the Vinodabere newspaper (registration by the Court of Rome dated 12/14/2017).

The comparison between the two years (2019 and 2018), represented by 50 samples from 25 companies, saw 2019 prevail by a whisker (we're talking 0.2 cents), demonstrating that the victory was by no means a given.

Here is the list of labels, in order of preference, which exceeded 90 cents and most convinced those present (according to the average scores):

Brunello di Montalcino 2019 – La Fortuna

Brunello di Montalcino 2019 – Sesti Castello di Argiano

Brunello di Montalcino 2018 – Maté Famiglia

Brunello di Montalcino 2018 – Gorelli

Brunello di Montalcino 2019 – Lisini

Brunello di Montalcino 2018 – Casisano

Brunello di Montalcino 2019 – Collemattoni

Brunello di Montalcino 2019 – Mastrojanni

Brunello di Montalcino 2019 – Pian delle Querci

Brunello di Montalcino 2018 – Mastrojanni

Brunello di Montalcino 2018 – Pian delle Querci

Brunello di Montalcino 2019 – Camigliano

Brunello di Montalcino 2019 – Maté Famiglia

Brunello di Montalcino 2019 – Chiusa Grossa

Brunello di Montalcino 2019 – Corte dei Venti

Brunello di Montalcino 2018 – Collemattoni

Brunello di Montalcino Greppone Mazzi 2019 – Ruffino

Brunello di Montalcino 2018 – Poggio Antico

Brunello di Montalcino 2018 – La Palazzetta (Flavio Fanti)

Brunello di Montalcino 2019 – Gorelli