Five days, 126 wineries and over 500 labels for tasting. These are the numbers of the 33rd edition of Benvenuto Brunello, the traditional autumn preview of the great red wine from Montalcino, which closes tomorrow, 18 November, in the Sant’Agostino Cloister of the village in the province of Siena. This year the focus was on Brunello di Montalcino 2020, on Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2019, on Rosso di Montalcino 2023 and on the labels of Moscadello and Sant’Antimo, the other two wines of the denomination. Wines that will be put on the market starting from next January and which on Thursday 14th and Friday 15th were the protagonists of the technical tastings reserved for the national and international press while yesterday, today and tomorrow we continue with the walk around tastings with the producers also open to wines lover. The other events of the event were masterclasses conducted by experts, a conference on the future of wine consortia, the awarding of the Leccio d’Oro award and the traditional unveiling of the Benvenuto Brunello tile, unveiled in a ceremony at the Astrusi theater and then placed in front of the Town Hall. This year it was signed by the director of Turkish origin Ferzan Ozpetek, who explained that it reproduces a painting of his made in Rome in 1982 when he improvised as a painter to support himself while trying to make it in the world of cinema.
This edition of Benvenuto Brunello also inaugurates the innovative model for evaluating wines based on the different harvests specifically calibrated on Sangiovese di Montalcino. The objective is to analyze the vintage according to canons that are no longer quantitative (the stars) and self-referential but qualitative and stylistic that derive from the interaction between grape variety, climate change and wine, also considering the great heterogeneity of the territory in terms of exposure, altitude and soils. A complex study, the so-called Forma Project, which involved members of the consortium, a team of expert climatologists and high tech farming professionals from the Copernico company and an international tasting panel made up of eight Masters of Wine (MW), who agreed on the definition of Brunello di Montalcino 2020 in three words: captivating, brilliant, succulent. The analysis reveals a notable emphasis on mature and complex fruit expressions in most cases, a pleasant balance between fruit intensity and structure, which argues in favor of a certain longevity of the vintage. The tannins are refined, juicy and pleasantly smooth and supported by a good acidity. From a stylistic point of view some wines highlight delicate, crisp aromas and finesse, while others show a bolder, voluminous and concentrated style. This indicates a versatile vintage.
On the occasion of Benvenuto Brunello, the economic results of the great Sangiovese-based wine were also made known. Which, even in the decidedly negative context for wine – the global performances in volume and value are respectively at -8 percent and -7 percent – shows in the first nine months of 2024 a growth trend of 5 percent in volume and in 1 in value. Thanks above all to the American market, and even more so to the southern states of the United States, which according to the focus of the UIV Observatory on a SipSource basis shows a trend growth in sales in the first nine months of 2024 of 19 percent in volume and 14 percent one hundred in value, contributing to the excellent performance of the States (+5 percent in volume). The luxury positioning is also good: the prince of Tuscan wines is first in consumption of Italian reds with a retail price of over 50 dollars per bottle, with a 32 percent share of the total.
Driving the growth in consumption of Brunello which has continued for about two years is – again according to the UIV observatory – the off-trade with a +10 percent in value which covers the decline in the on-trade with interest (- 6 percent).
“Welcome Brunello in November – comments the president of the consortium Fabrizio Bindocci
– it is confirmed as an incisive preview to strengthen the positioning of our denomination on the market, in particular on the international one where we actually export around 70 percent of our production”.