Brunello di Montalcino 2019 – ‘spoiled for choice’: Full report

Brunello di Montalcino 2019

Brunello di Montalcino 2019 vintage rating: 5/5

A warm vintage without extremes, and rainfall at the optimal intervals. Long ripening and cool nights yielded perfumed wines with ripe tannins. Most are accessible now but possess structure for mid- to long-term ageing.


When I visited Montalcino in November 2023, the recent harvest was still fresh in producers’ minds. Between the non-stop rain in spring, the ongoing menace of peronospora (downy mildew), and hail in mid-August, it was one of the most challenging years the region has seen in decades.

Softening the blow was the 2019 vintage of Brunello di Montalcino, to be released in January 2024. Faces brightened when the conversation turned to this outstanding vintage. Unlike 2023, the growing season was particularly benevolent – to the extent that producers seemed to have little to discuss.

‘When a year is great, there is no need to say anything,’ quips Gigliola Giannetti at Le Potazzine. ‘Everything was as it should be.’

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