2010 La Gerla Brunello di Montalcino 750 ml

95pt Brunello di Montalcino — Patience at Gotham Hall

A year ago, the proprietors of nearly every significant estate in Montalcino traveled to New York for the much-awaited unveiling of the 2010 vintage. We awoke early that frigid morning and hopped on a subway for Penn Station. It was 9am when we surfaced.  We grabbed a pair of piping-hot double cappuccinos, walked a few blocks and sat down on the steps at 1356 Broadway. When the doors opened on Gotham Hall, we went to work.

Based on our barrel-tastings of the previous two summers, there were at least twenty estates presenting the finest Brunellos they’d ever made.  We’d done our homework and were prepared to make commitments with all of them on the spot.  Why all the urgency? First, the 2010 harvest, while phenomenal for quality, was quite small. Yields were down thirty percent from the norm.  Second, neither Parker nor Wine Spectator had published their 2010 ratings.  Once they did, we reasoned importers would awaken worldwide and every bottle of 2010 Brunello would be allocated.

For a few hours that morning, Montalcino’s vintage of a lifetime was ours for the taking.  We weren’t going home empty-handed.

In just two hours we completed an unprecedented buying spree, securing allocations from Poggio Antico, Paradisone, Talenti, Caparzo, Costanti, Fuligni, Molino di Sant’Antimo and Lisini. But as to one of the four or five most extraordinary bottles of the morning — the 2010 La Gerla — Sergio Rossi wasn’t budging.  Here’s why.

In 1976, successful Italian advertising executive Sergio Rossi purchased a property from Biondi Santi, known locally as Colombaio.  While plenty of wealthy entrepreneurs have paid dearly for vineyard land in Montalcino, many treat their purchases as little more than lifestyle hobbies.  Not Rossi, who immediately began investing heavily in an estate he would soon rename La Gerla.

Rossi’s pride and joy is the 6-hectare parcel at Canilicchio set on the cooler northern side of town.  Perfectly positioned on the “center-cut” of a fairly steep slope, and first planted just before Rossi’s purchase in 1976, the soils here are a well-draining mix of marl, clay, silt and white limestone.  The voluptuousness, richness and superb structure of La Gerla is often attributed to Canilicchio’s tendency to ripen slowly, allowing seeds to brown and tannins to soften effortlessly.

In a 2010 harvest that Robert Parker called a vintage “where you get it all,” Rossi and his vineyard crew waited patiently during that magnificent Indian summer, stretching out the growing season until the first week of October.  Bunches were first hand-sorted on the vines, and then again, even more rigorously, on the sorting table.  Due to the unusual maturity of the seeds and tannins, the Sangiovese was then treated to a 15-day cool fermentation, extracting color, texture and wild berry concentration.  

The 2010 La Gerla Brunello di Montalcino was then left to age for four years, three of which in small to mid-sized Slavonian barrels.  After bottling, Sergio Rossi laid down his 2010 for another year — just for good measure — before finally releasing the finest wine ever to come off this property in the fall of 2015.  

Chalk this one up to patience. 95 points from Galloni.  94+ from Wine Advocate. 94 from Wine Spectator — completing the critical trifecta.  20 cases remain in the La Gerla cellar in Montalcino, all of which are now earmarked for WineAccess.  $57.  Shipping included on 4.