Villa Poggio Salvi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 1979, Tuscany, Italy
Tasting Note: Pale brick red with a slightly orange rim. On the nose very savoury and complex with layers of spice, liquorice, lovely earthy forest floor, wet leaves, truffles, dried red fruits (mainly cherries) and leather On the palate: Elegant and distinguished with a firm backbone of lifted acidity, resolved fine-grained tannins give a firm definition to the structure, whilst revealing similar to the nose layers of tertiary aromas of truffles, liquorice, earth forest floor and hints of orange peel. Lovely savoury texture and a long finish. 13% abv. This wine still has a very good concentration and it´s in its best drinking window but given the acidity, very good structure and depth of concentration of fruit, this may well will still be good for another 5 – 7 yrs. Beautiful wine.
Score: 94pts. Seems like we have been really lucky with this bottle! Winemaking: 100% Sangiovese Grosso.
Very little information available about the 1979 vintage. Brunello di Montalcino is recognized as being one of the great wines of the world with an extremely long aging capacity. By law Brunello di Montalcino DOCG must spend at least two years in barrel then rest in bottle for a minimum of 4 months, however it cannot be released to the market for 5 years. Basically this means that in theory a Brunello can spend 4 years and 8 months in barrel then 4 months in bottle before release although this combination is rarely the case with most wines spending 2 years in barrel + 3 years in bottle prior to release.