Brunello, an international team of Masters of Wine will judge the vintages

A team of Masters of Wine will assess the new vintages of Brunello di Montalcino ready to go on sale. This is the main novelty announced by the Consorzio del Brunello for the 2024 edition of Benvenuto Brunello (from 14 to 18 November in Montalcino), the annual event that presents the new vintages that after the ageing period go on sale from January and that this year will be the 2020 and the Riserva 2019.

But the project is more articulated. For the first time, therefore, a consortium is launching a multi-stage initiative (meteorological, analytical, sensory) culminating in an international panel of 8 Masters of Wine (MW). The aim is to highlight the stylistic and distinctive personality of Tuscany's princely wine.

After the re-opening of the format to producers in attendance, this is the further great novelty of the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino for the 33rd edition of the event.

The working group of the new project, led by the board of directors of the consortium entity and formed by experts climatologists, territorial analysis specialists and international tasters, has developed an innovative evaluation method that takes into account the factors of great heterogeneity and identity that characterise the denomination. The system devised combines the objective data linked to the climatic trends of the different vintages, the consequences that the seasons have on the behaviour of the Sangiovese variety (Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino are produced with a 100% Sangiovese blend) and the subjective sensations of a representative sample of tasters to perceive and valorise the peculiarities of the different vintages.

"After having abandoned in 2021 the judgement expressed by the number of stars for the November preview of Benvenuto Brunello, it was necessary to define a new paradigm for the analysis of the vintage - explains the President of the Consortium, Fabrizio Bindocci - no longer merely quantitative but based on objective, authoritative and non-self-referential data. For the first time, a Consorzio di tutela also entrusts the reading of its flagship wine to an external team of experts, who can change for each edition. An innovation that will allow the producers of Montalcino to present themselves on the market on the basis of a solid and contemporary evaluation model that takes into account climate change, current style and consumption trends of Brunello".