Last night we decided it was time to try one of these. Opened it about 2 hours before dinner but didn't decant it until about 10 minutes before sitting down. Deep garnet colour with good glass coating characteristics. Nice floral and cherry aromas. Full bodied, very silky and a good long finish. Classy wine, it's drinking very well now but it will be interesting to see how it develops with some more bottle age. Score it in the low 90's.

I've got a bottle of the '96 and the '97, and I think I'll wait 2-3 years before opening. Barbi makes very traditional wines, and they often need a lot of bottle age to get rid of the hard tannins.

FUTRONIC, I was wondering about these, i have 7 of the 97's but have not touched these. I'll wait several more years.

I was expecting it to be tannic but was surprised that it wasn't. If I only had one bottle I would wait but I still have a couple more.

Are you talking about the base bottling, or the Vigna del Fiore? There are Riserva of each of the two labels, too, that result in four different Brunello, even if I am not sure they made all of them in 1997. Sure they made the base 1997 and the Riserva Vigna del Fiore 1997. The latter is one of the purest traditional expressions of Brunello di Montalcino, with big old woods giving to the wine a quite rare scent, nowadays, and the typical and quite unique charcter of Sangiovese Grosso extremely well pointed out.

Though, a particularly subtle and out-of-time type of wine, a wine that is no technically perfect but one that can tell you something original about the piece of land where it was born. Something quite rare nowadays, especially in Tuscany.

I haven't tried mine yet either but, like futronic, I also have some of the '96 which is just now coming into its drinking window, in my view.

Rossano,

On Barbi's website, I only see three Brunello listed. They are the normale, riserva, and Vigna del Fiore.

That said, I tasted the riserva in September, and I found very tannic and not showing much aroma or fruit. It was way too young, and needs a minimum of 10 years, if not longer, in my opinion.

Just to make sure there is no confusion, my original TN post was for the "base" bottling.

These Brunellos seem to have opted for a more traditional approach rather than the market pleasing approach. I find the comment she expressed regarding heavy wood to be dead on. I have found, especially in the 1997 releases--because they had so much attention--that there is an enormous variety in overall flavor. Certainly many will undergo maturation with age, but in opening the Barbi 97 as well as the Caprili 97 and 98 in particular, I was immediately hit with the wooded flavors Rossano mentioned. It seems that these wines are tailored to suit the terrior rather than the mroe predominate idea of pleasing the market palate. I find that most tasters will have mixed reviews of these style wines and that they will not be considered "table pleasers". I'll hold them and personally drink them, or use them in tastings as comparisons to other Brunellos of the same age.
Rossano--I would be interested in knowing more about this approach should you have some additional information.

quote:

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Originally posted by futronic:
Rossano,

On Barbi's website, I only see three Brunello listed. They are the normale, riserva, and Vigna del Fiore.

That said, I tasted the riserva in September, and I found very tannic and not showing much aroma or fruit. It was way too young, and needs a minimum of 10 years, if not longer, in my opinion.

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Futronic, in some vintages Fattoria dei Barbi makes also a Riserva coming from Vigna del Fiore, it is weared with an extremely simple label, quite similar to the base Vigna del Fiore, with the difference that all the printings are in a light red and instead of the black corner on the top left angle there is a thin red stripe bearing the "Vigna del Fiore" name. The "Riserva" specification is written in small characters under the line saying "Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita" in the center. the vintage is displayed with a small separated label just under the shoulder of the bottle.
I drank a bottle of this 1997 Riserva Vigna del Fiore last Christmas with a bunch of friends.

quote:

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Originally posted by escape:
I find the comment she expressed

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Dear escape, Rossano is the male and quite rare version of a female and much widely spread name, Rossana. As a consequence I am a male, heavily bearded and definitely straight, too...

quote:

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Originally posted by escape:
These Brunellos seem to have opted for a more traditional approach rather than the market pleasing approach. I find the comment she expressed regarding heavy wood to be dead on. I have found, especially in the 1997 releases--because they had so much attention--that there is an enormous variety in overall flavor. Certainly many will undergo maturation with age, but in opening the Barbi 97 as well as the Caprili 97 and 98 in particular, I was immediately hit with the wooded flavors Rossano mentioned. It seems that these wines are tailored to suit the terrior rather than the mroe predominate idea of pleasing the market palate. I find that most tasters will have mixed reviews of these style wines and that they will not be considered "table pleasers". I'll hold them and personally drink them, or use them in tastings as comparisons to other Brunellos of the same age.
Rossano--I would be interested in knowing more about this approach should you have some additional information.

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Escape, I think that your view of the character of this style of Brunello is extremely well focused. I am not particularly fond of Brunello di Montalcino (or to better say I had relatively little experience on it), and as a consequence I acnnot be aprticularly precise in reporting technical or insight informations.

Nonetheless, this particular wooden scent that you can recollect on a Brunello like Riserva Vigna del Fiore or other Fattoria dei Barbi's traditional Brunello simply comes from old big barrels. The tendence to age Brunello in barrique is something EXTREMLY new, while until a dozen years or little more very few producers used little wood.

So, if you want to know which taste has the REAL hystorical Brunello, you must uncork one of these bottles like Biondi-Santi, Fattoria dei Barbi (which is the oldest producer of the whole Italian landscape, dating back to the XIV century if I am not wrong), Soldera and other ones like these. In addition, as you very smartly pointed out, this is surely the best way to stress the particular and extremely subtle nuances that define the real and authentic character of Montalcino and of the Sangiovese Grosso grape. My opinion is that in the best of the cases the heavy use of little wood lets these aspects emerge only after a very long time. More often, even if very good and pleasant, an average heavy barrique Brunello simply doesn't tall at all of its homeland. I find most of these wines much more boring than the traditional ones (the best of the traditional ones, obviously).

Terribly sorry for the obvious oversight! But terribly thankful for the further details you offered regarding the Brunellos.

Don't worry, it results to be an unusual name even for Italians.

It's been a pleasure to point out some basics about a 'cultural' approach to Brunello di Montalcino, since I see that you can easily get the core point. In my opinion the sudden success that hit Montalcino gave the opportunity to many people to know a really beautiful place and a really noteworthy wine, but brought in also some exaggerated consumer-oriented attitude, and sincerely I find the attual landascape of the Brunello production not really as good as it could be, and sometimes nearly disheartening.

The soil is still there, but Sangiovese Grosso is often planted side by side with international varietals (look at the base of the cork: Sangiovese cannot mark it with dark violet tones, you'll have many interesting experiences while operating this check), the climatic shift is making a well balanced vintage something quite rare, and the use of new wood is still far to be well mastered by many of the producers who use it. Nonetheless some new producers in the bunch are beginning to make very nice wines (I like to remember Pian dell'Orino, in particular), and in the group of historycal producers there is a good number of them that still make high quality stuff.

Out of the already named Biondi-Santi and Soldera (that are actually quite controversial bottles, I have to admit), I always enjoy very much Brunello by Col d'Orcia (Poggio al Vento), Mastrojanni (Schiena d'Asino), Altesino (Montosoli), Il Poggione, Lisini (Ugolaia) and some other ones.

Rossano, do you know anything about Comunale, fam.Bartoli Giusti Facacco, Brunello di Montalcino 1997?

I picked a couple op bottles up in Tuscany last Summer. Why? They were rare, I could have picked up Barbi or another, but I found this unknown wine 'intriging'. Anything on this estate??

Thanks in advance!

And on the Seventh Day the wine was sour...

I'm sorry, I never heard about this producer. As I stated in the beginning, Montalcino is not the area I focus the most on. There are currently about 200 growers and about 130-150 bottlers in Montalcino, and many of them are so brand new ones that the time to check the most of them is still too little. The nice thing is that even if some of these new producers put vines where should be planted tomatoes or forests, some other are experimenting some new little spots and finding some excellent new vineyards with perfect microclimates. So, the nice surprise can always be behind the corner...

I had the 1997 Barbi Brunello (regular bottling) with dinner in Milan two days ago.

The food pairings were an appetiser of shrimp with beans, and main course was breaded veal cutlet with asparagus & roasted red pepper. No carbos were served with the main dish, but I made out big with the olive bread served on the side (delicious). [I thought I was taking a bit of a flier on the appetiser dish, but the shrimp with beans were absolutely superb!]

The bottle was not decanted. In the glass,the wine was a light garnet, not very clear, but with evident glycerin. At first, I found the aroma somewhat restrained - a fairly simple cherry with some tar underneath. The mouthfeel was quite chewy. I didn't particularly notice the 'woody' aroma mentioned by others above - it was not nearly as evident as in many Australian wines. (However, I have limited experience with Italian wines and so I'm not familiar with their evolution in recent years.)

As the meal went on, the wine really opened up. The aroma lost its tarry undertone and became quite floral. In contrast to its muted opening, this aroma reached out to you. The taste lost its chewiness and became silky with an extended finish. The tannis became noticeable but in balance and lending support to the taste.

I'd like to try this wine again, in a more controlled environment. For now, I'd say my rating would be definitely in the 91-93 range.

Has anyone tried the '98?

I haven't, Slan, but at $47CAD, it's surely one of the least expensive '98 Brunellos to come through Ontario. WS rated it an 88, so I think it's a buy and something to drink over the next few years.

Me neither. I was hoping to try it at the Salons des Vins here on the weekend, but they were still pushing those '97s that are still on the shelves here.

I had a bottle of the 95 (also a very good year) a month or two ago (last of 3 or 4 I bought on release) and it was at or just past its peak in my opinion. Frat. Barbi is traditional in style, but I don't think it is a real long ageing Brunello.

Dark ruby colour. Very rustic nose of earth, leather, and dried roses. Medium-bodied, with leather, cherry, and flowers. Moderate finish, 30-35s, with red fruit. 89 points (01/14/2006).

Has anyone on the boards had this since Futronic's post? I have one bottle in my stash, and wondered if it is improving/fading.

Thanks very much.

I had this one at the Fattoria dei Barbi restaurant in June of this year. I have no tasting notes. We had it together with a '99 riserva during the same dinner. I remember it to have slightly rough tannines and ripe raisin. Compared to the '99 riserva (which I have tasted at home) I would rate this around 88-89. The ripeness of the fruit tones would suggest that it won't get any more balanced by ageing. It would be a Drink Now in my book.

I must add to this that Barbi is not my favourite because of the tannic edges in the '97, '00 and '01 that I tasted this summer and in june 2005 (except for the '01, that was only released this year). The '99 riserva was a pleasant surprise in that respect.

Thanks Jochems. What you wrote down is a tasting note in my book. As I am relatively new to fine wine, my concerns are whether the fruit is tart, the wine is thin, too tannic, acidic, or the fruit is buried/dried up. My biggest problem with lesser Sangiovese is that they can taste thin, sour and metallic.Glad I don't have too much of this.
My collection of Brunello is mostly Frescobaldi and Banfi.
Do you have any idea how long this wine was open/decanted before serving? I find that even the Rossos need a good shot of air to be decent.