Two Crops: Montalcino's Biggest Harvest, And Its Frost Year

Vintage charts tell you 2019 was a great year in Montalcino and 2021 was a hard one. The reason is crop size. 2019 produced 98,407 hectoliters, the largest harvest the appellation saw between 2019 and 2023. Then April 2021 brought frost on the 7th through the 9th, and again on the 15th. Vineyards below 250 meters lost as much as 35% of their fruit. So we pulled two producers and poured each of them in both years. Same vines, same soil, same cellar, same people — the variable is how much fruit was hanging. Lisini and Uccelliera farm different corners of Montalcino at different heights, and that turns out to matter more than the vintage headline.

The Lisini Brunello di Montalcino 2019 comes from one of the appellation's oldest families. The Lisini-Clementi line has held land here since the 1500s, and the estate tower dates to the 1300s. Lisini helped found the Brunello consorzio in 1967. In 1970 Elina Lisini became its first woman president. The estate's twenty-odd hectares sit at 300 to 350 meters below Sant'Angelo in Colle, in the zone of Sesta. The rows open south toward the Maremma, which keeps the site dry and ventilated. Fruit is 100% Sangiovese from the estate's own massal selection. Fermentation happens in glass-lined cement tanks with 20 to 26 days on the skins. The wine then spends 42 months in Slavonian casks of 20 to 52 hectoliters. Expect chestnut, iron, red rose and sunbaked earth over fleshy persimmon and ripe strawberry. Wine Spectator scored it 97. It's $69.99.

The Lisini Brunello di Montalcino 2021 is the control in this experiment. Lisini produced 40,000 bottles in 2019 and 40,000 bottles again in 2021. The frost that cut the appellation by roughly 15% barely registered here. Lisini's lowest vines start at 300 meters, above the band that took the damage. Everything else stayed constant — same massal-selection Sangiovese, same cement tanks, same 20 to 26 days on skins. The wine again spent 42 months in large Slavonian casks and six to eight months in bottle, and saw no new oak. What changed is the growing season, and you can taste it. This is cooler and tighter than the 2019, with crushed violet, lavender, dried orange peel and a flick of iodine. Wild raspberry and Marasca cherry sit under thick, dusty tannins. Wine Spectator gave it 97 as well. Wait until 2028. It's $81.99.

The Uccelliera Brunello di Montalcino 2019 comes from the opposite corner of the hill. Andrea Cortonesi bought this estate from Ciacci Piccolomini in 1986 and farms about ten hectares at Castelnuovo dell'Abate. Monte Amiata stands as a natural barrier to the southeast. Marine breezes rise up the Orcia river valley. The vineyards run from 150 to 350 meters on calcareous clay heavy with sand, marl and crumbled fossils. Cortonesi destems under dry ice, holds the fruit cold for seven or eight days, then lets indigenous yeast start on its own. He has used no selected yeast since 2003. The 2019 ripened slowly after a wet winter and a summer without heat spikes, and picking began 25 September. Look for crushed cherry, cedar, dried bay leaf, black pepper and a chalky grip. Jeb Dunnuck scored it 96. It's $74.99.

The Uccelliera Brunello di Montalcino 2021 is the one bottle here the frost actually reached. Because Cortonesi's plots drop to 150 meters, part of the estate sits inside the damage band. His own vintage notes record vegetative trauma and uneven bud development, but no irreversible harm. A warm, dry summer with steady day-night temperature swings then evened the ripening back out. He picked from 20 September, five days ahead of 2019. Production fell from 36,000 bottles to 34,733 — a smaller gap than the vintage's reputation suggests. The cellar work was unchanged: dry ice, a cold week, wild yeast, 25 to 30 days on skins, then at least 24 months in Slavonian and French oak of assorted sizes. The result is wild strawberry, dried violet, anise and polished leather over chalky, angular tannins. Suckling, Dunnuck and Wine Spectator all gave it 96. It's $76.99.