Le Chiuse Brunello di Montalcino 2019

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Lorenzo Magnelli of Le Chiuse continues to show the prestige of their terroir in their new 2019 Brunello. Its purity and balance alone are something to behold, yet it will take some time before this northern Montalcino beauty is ready to reveal all of its charms. The Le Chiuse vineyards are located in the north, a single block that sits between Montalcino and Montosoli. It’s a unique site with a steep, hillside exposition at 330 meters of elevation, rich in schist, stones and fossils with water-retaining clay only two meters below.

I’ve had the pleasure of devouring many vintages of Le Chiuse, the 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016. All have been delicious. The 2014 is perhaps the wine that tells us the most. A tough year, yet the likes of Le Chiuse and Soldera managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat with some mad skills in the vineyard and the winery.

About Le Chiuse

The Le Chiuse holdings originate through hereditary title, passed down from ancestors, Jacobo Biondi and Clementina Santi. Wine production starting toward the end of the 19th century.

For most of its life, the fruit of the vineyard was destined, through lease, for Biondi-Santi’s Brunello di Montalcino Riserva. Upon the death of a family Fiorella in 1986, the Le Chiuse holding, right in the heart of Montalcino,  passed to her daughter Simonetta Valiani.  With her grandfather love for the lands and passion for making wine, Simonetta started to produce wine “Brunello Le Chiuse”. Together with her husband Nicolo’ Magnelli she restored the farm-buildings, the chapel, built a new underground-cellar and planted new vineyards. To maintain the wine typicality the new vineyards are implanted with wild feet all grafted one by one with the old vines stocks (60/70 years old).

The film below is in Italian. If you turn on captions CC and then go to settings ⚙️ you can select auto-translate to choose a captions language of your choice.

Like Chianti, Sangiovese is at the core of Brunello, specifically the Sangiovese Grosso clone. Brunello has an incredible diversity of styles, the ‘modern style’ tend to be clinical, often oakey, to my mind lacking harmony. The ‘traditional’ employing old large oak show delicacy and restraint, even when blessed with some incredibly powerful fruit.

Le Chiuse is undoubtedly a traditional producer, yet they clearly understand hygiene. There’s no Brett in these babies. The Brunellos I’ve tasted from them to date have been beautiful wines.

In the Vineyards

The estate consists of 18 hectares, including vineyards, olive groves and forest.

The Le Chiuse vineyards are located in the north, a single block that sits between Montalcino and Montosoli. It’s a unique site with a steep, hillside exposition at 330 meters of elevation, rich in schist, stones and fossils with water-retaining clay only two meters below.

There are five Sangiovese Grosso vineyards on the property with respective ages of 26, 16,14,10 and 2 years old.  Together, the vineyards occupy eight hectares and have an average vine density of 4,000 vines per hectare.  The spurred cordon trained vines are, for the most part, from a Massal selection of Sangiovese Grosso from Il Greppo.

The terrain is of marine origin and, therefore, rich in fossil material.  It is also composed of clay striations, as well as, a good presence of marl and tuff.  The result of this composition is the production of a wine characterized by an exaltation of aromas, good body and an alcohol level that is never excessive.

Each year Le Chiuse produces approximately 30,000 bottles of wine between its Rosso di Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino Riserva and a classic method spumante called “Stellare”.

As the new shouts establish they are heavily thinned to control the yield and keep the canopy open.

In August, the green harvest takes place in which a selection of bunches is made.  In the course of the green harvest, almost half of the entire production of the vineyards is purged – an average of 40-45 quintals per hectare are removed.  This operation is fundamental to obtaining high quality, allowing a better maturation of the remaining bunches and giving a good concentration to the final wine.  In addition, the low yields reduce the risk of attack from disease, guaranteeing healthy grapes.

The true harvest begins in the second half of September when the largest bunches are collected by hand for the Rosso di Montalcino and “Stellare”.  After a few weeks, it is time for the smallest bunches to be harvested for the Brunello di Montalcino, and in the best years, the Brunello di Montalcino Riserva.

The grapes are selected and picked by hand.  Taking advantage of the vicinity of the winery, the grapes make it from the vineyards to the de-stemmer and crusher in less than a half hour.  Using a gravitational system, the must falls into steel vats to begin fermentation.

In the Winery

Once de-stemmed and crushed, the grapes are gravitationally fed into steel vats.  Fermentation using indigenous yeasts takes place in thermo-controlled tanks that do not exceed 29°C.  Throughout fermentation and maceration, the must undergoes remontage and delestage to obtain the best extraction from the skins.  After 18 days, the wine is separated and left to rest for approximately three months.  During this period, malolactic fermentation takes place.

In January, the wine is racked into large Slovenian oak barrels that hold 20-30 hl.  The wine will refine here for 12 months in the case of Rosso di Montalcino, 36 months in the case of Brunello di Montalcino and 48 months in the case of Brunello di Montalcino Riserva.  During aging the wine is racked regularly.

Before bottling, the wine goes back into steel tanks while DOC and DOCG certifications are requested.

After light filtering, the wine is bottled and then refines an additional eight months before release.

Vintage 2019 in Montalcino

The current releases from Montalcino are an embarrassment of riches for collectors and fans of the appellation. … classic 2019 Brunellos, the high-energy and fruit-forward 2021 Rossos.

…this is a year where the entire region excelled, from southwest to east and northeast to west. Frankly stated, finding a 2019 that doesn’t show remarkable balance, vivid fruit and freshness is a difficult task. In my opinion, this is always a mark of a great year. The highs are exceptionally high, and the lows are few and far between. What’s more, this is a year where many lesser wines excelled, making picking out a 2019 Brunello a relatively easy affair.

This is a vintage of radiance and appeal without any sensation of over-ripeness or lack of complexity. The wines are aromatically intense and full of dimension, with translucent color, fruit typicity and the ability to communicate a sense of place. They are structured and built for cellaring, often showing their best after being open for over two days in bottle. The terms classic, racy, cool-toned, crunchy and sleek litter my tasting notes, and while many 2019s display an inviting personality today, they are balanced for the cellar and sure to mature beautifully over the next ten to fifteen years, if not more. This is the vintage we’ve all been waiting for. 

Eric Guido, Vinous

2019 ranks close to 2016 in terms of overall excellence…

What struck me most about this vintage is what I perceive as the possible beginning, or distant stirrings, of a new identity. It’s too early to call it a “new wave,” or “nouvelle vague” in French, but cinephiles might recognize certain patterns, a desire for experimentation and a spirit of iconoclasm.

I’m referring to the increasingly tight-knit group of artisanal winemakers like Il Marroneto, Le Chiuse, Le Ragnaie, Pian dell’Orino, Poggio di Sotto, Salicutti and Stella di Campalto, who are independently but simultaneously pushing the bar higher. Their work builds upon the timeless classics created by Biondi-Santi, Cerbaiona, Soldera and Salvioni.

A common remark from vintners was how uniformly easy 2019 fruit was to farm and ferment.

Elevation is one of the most talked about issues in the appellation today. Appellation guidelines once fixed the ceiling for Brunello di Montalcino at 600 meters above sea level, but that was recently raised to 650 meters. The highest point, the Passo del Lume Spento, sits at 621 meters in elevation. There has been a rush of important investments recently in these higher and cooler areas.

The generic 2019 flavor profile sees lots of dark fruit without excessive ripeness. There is good balance between acidity, concentration and tannins, which feel elegantly fine-grained and sometimes chalky.

The 2019s are also distinguished by more concentration and fruit weight that remains balanced and elegant.”

Monica Larner, The Wine Advocate

“The 2019 vintage finally gave us all reason to exhale because we harvested with perfect ripeness and without worrying too much about fruit selection. Everyone around Montalcino threw big harvest parties to sing and celebrate the extraordinary quality of fruit,”

“Fruit from 2019 showed elegance coming into the winery. This vintage was born elegant.”

Alessandro Mori, Il Marroneto

Where in the World is Le Chiuse?