Montalcino Report

Tasting Old Vintage of the Rosso di Montalino by the Tenuta del Poggione

A few weeks ago, we have tasted some great old vintages of Rosso di Montalcino as we prepare for a tasting that we will do soon. The beauty of working for a historical estate like the Tenuta Il Poggione is that of being able to count on an archive of bottles conswerved in the best possible ways and to be able to taste them and to appreciate the longevity and the class of the Sangiovese even in a wine like Rosso di Montalcino. 

Tasting different vintages side-by-side permits us to see how the style of the estate has remained unaltered in time, in the name of the tradition and the quality. It was also interesting to taste the vintage 1982 which, besides being the year of my birth, is the year in which this wine has changed its name from Vino Rosso dai Vigneti di Brunello to Rosso di Montlacino, to then become DOC a year later, in the 1983.

 

The Works in the Vineyard of January

During this period, the first thing we do is to remove all the polyethene material that was used to bind the vegetation. This material is collected, placed in bags, and then disposed of by companies that specialize in refuse disposal.

Then we pass through the vineyards with a pre-pruner mounted on a tractor that removes 80% of the canes and helps the subsequent final pruning which is done manually. This is done with pneumatic scissors.

 

 

The Works Begin Again and Why The Winter Cold Is Important

After the harvest of the olives, the Tenuta Il Poggione stopped the works in the fields, picking up again to work after the mid-point of January. We have purposely not begun the pruning of the vines and the olive trees because the climatic progression has had days more similar to spring than to winter.

The winter cold is very important: it serves to have more buds that fruit than those that turn to wood. But it also serves to make the plants go into and remain in a vegetative state.

Since this did not happen because of the temperatures, the risk is that in a premature reawakening of the vegetation, there can be possible damage in the spring caused by the probable lowering of the temperatures with late frosts.

The delay in pruning the plants serves to slow the vegetative reawakening and this is the logic that has guided us in our work. The current weather is anomalous for the season, even with regard to rainfall. We are very much below the seasonal averages and the rain has yet to be seen. We hope that in the coming days a storm will arrive with rain and a lowering of the temperatures.

Montalcino Report quoted on Wine Enthusiast blog

Giulio Gambelli, photo from the blog Intravino.

Montalcino Report has been quoted on the blog of the Wine Enthusiast.

The blog quotes both my father Fabrizio and me about the cultural patrimony of the great taster Giulio Gambelli who has passed away on the 3 January.

Click here to read the Wine Enthusiast necrology and the quote of me and my father.

Requiescat in pace: Giuseppe Quintarelli

We are very sorry to have learned that one of the greatest winemakers of Italy has expired yesterday, Giuseppe "Bepi" Quintarelli, the grande maestro of Valpolicella. 

Our thoughts and wishes go out to Bepi''s family and dear ones.

Tenuta il Poggione in the Wine Enthusiast Top 100

The 2005 Tenuta Il Poggione Brunello di Montalcino Riserva VIgna Paganelli has been featured in the Wine Enthusiast Top 100 list of 2011's wines:

95 points Il Poggione 2005 Vigna Paganelli Riserva

(Brunello di Montalcino). Riserva Vigna

Paganelli is an outstanding wine with bold chocolate and exotic spice aromas that are folded deep within the wine’s solid, succulent structure. This expression earns high marks thanks to the impressively rich and creamy feel it imparts in the mouth. Terlato Wines International.

Click here to download the complete list.

 

My father Fabrizio Bindocci remembers Giulio Gambelli

A few days ago, Giulio Gambelli passed away. He was a historical figure in Tuscan enology, with a great palate and innate ability as a taster, a talent he refined over the course of many years.

A highly capable man but at the same time a paragon of modesty who believed in the potential of Tuscan wines produced using only Sangiovese. He always said that winemakers are the ones who make the wines together with the land and the vine. He was a simple taster who gave his advice to winemakers on what to do in the cellar without forcing them to denaturalize their wines.

He made his first visit to Montalcino in the early 1970s when the Consortium of Brunello di Montalcino asked him to visit all of the producers in the appellation. He drove his famous Renault 4 from winery to winery, tasted the wine from the barrel or vat, and then he would patiently and phlegmatically explain the importance of cleanliness in the cellar, precision in vinification, the importance of racking, etc. But always with the humility typical of the greats in the world of wine.

When he came to visit us at Il Poggione, we liked to have him taste from cask. After our tasting, we would head over to the Trattoria Il Pozzo where we would continue tasting wines from bottle paired with classic Tuscan dishes.

I was proud to know him and our friendship was the source of great joy. Every year, we would speak to catch up and wish each other happy holidays. But this year, season's greetings didn't arrive. He was in the hospital. My thoughts and wishes go out to Giulio's family and dear ones.

Fabrizio Bindocci

Requiescat in pace: Giulio Gambelli

Photo from the Lavinium.

Necrology by the Decanter Magazine.

Giulio Gambelli, one of the giants of Tuscan wine, has died at the age of 86.

Gambelli – who was known as Bicchierino (or ‘Little Glass’) – was celebrated as one of Italy’s greatest connoisseurs of Sangiovese, and recognised as a superb taster.

He was born in 1925 in Poggibonsi in Siena, and joined Enopolio de Poggibonsi, which was then one of the largest wineries in the region, at the age of 14 as a cellar hand.

At Enopolio his tasting skills came to the notice of its director, Tancredi Biondi Santi, who took him on as his assistant in the company’s laboratory, where Gambelli started a lifelong study of Sangiovese.

In a career spanning nearly 70 vintages Gambelli's most renowned consultancies were with the Brunello di Montalcino of Soldera and Chianti Classico of Montevertine, but his importance was as an unwavering proponent of the use of the Sangiovese grape as a monovarietal at a time when Tuscan wineries were busily experimenting with blending Sangiovese with international grapes.

In this he was far ahead of his time. The importance of Sangiovese, in its own right, is now undisputed in Tuscany, and, arguably, it was Gambelli's work that led to that recognition.

Among many plaudits he received, Le Pergole Torte of Montevertine, on which he consulted, featured in Decanter's 2008 list of Italy's 50 Greatest Wines.

Journalist Carlo Macchi, who published a biography of Gambelli in 2007 (pictured) described him as ‘the last Sangiovese butterfly [that] for the past sixty-five years, instead of flying off, has been creating wines that make you feel lighter’.

Macchi quoted Gianfranco Soldera of Soldera in Montalcino, for whom Gambelli consulted, saying that ‘Giulio tastes what others do not, there’s no-one like him’.

Tributes have been pouring in on social media, with Italian wine lovers the world overlamenting his passing.

'Gambelli's legacy is a strong belief in Sangiovese - as one of Italy's undisputed great grape varieties’ one tweet said, while others referred to him as' Sangiovese’s most important protagonist'.

Most simply paid tribute to a man they described as ‘il grande maestro del Sangiovese.’

"Il Poggione my favorite of the night" @AmuseeWine Thanks you!

Thanks you, Ms.Leslee, for your kind words! Buon 2012!

Oh & that 1 sneaky but oh so deliciosa #brunellodimontalcino -Il Poggione, Italy...Shhh, my favorite #wine of the nite http://pic.twitter.com/o8wTXoe0

Happy holidays from the families at the Tenuta Il Poggione