Italian winemaker Angelo Gaja has said that Brunello should operate a two-tier system and allow other varieties other than Sangiovese.
As the Brunello grape blending furore continues, the veteran Piedmont producer - who also makes Brunello di Montalcino – has suggested DOC Brunello should move on and no longer demand the wine is made from 100% Sangiovese.
In an article published this month in Italian newspaper Libero and local Tuscan paper La Nazione, Gaja says that if indeed Brunello producers have been adding other grapes illegally to the wine, then those producers should have been lobbying to get the appellation rules changed.
'If the current investigations…should demonstrate the use of varieties different from Sangiovese for the production of Brunello di Montalcino, then the gravest error on the part of producers would have been… the fact that no-one moved to modify the appellation production rules in a timely way and remove the iron rule of 100% Sangiovese.'
Gaja believes Brunello producers who use 100% Sangiovese should be allowed to say so on their labels, while volume producers could operate with greater flexibility.
Both wines should be allowed to use the Brunello di Montalcino name, he says.
Gaja also leaps to the defence of Banfi, whose wines were at the centre of the scandal which broke earlier this year.
He says Brunello's success was the result of a synergy between artisanal and volume producers – embodied by the historic leadership of Franco Biondi Santi and the marketing expertise of Banfi.
After early errors, he argued, Banfi had become the 'driving force' of the appellation, creating a demand for Brunello in the US which soon spread around the world.
Gaja's comments follow reports earlier this month in La Nazione that grapes other than Sangiovese had been found in Banfi Brunello confiscated by investigators. The company has dismissed the reports and questioned the reliability of the analysis.
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I agree with Angelo Gaja in part. The same was done in Chianti Classico when many producers started using varieties outside of the appellation. The disciplinary was modified and now you can use Merlot, Cab Sauv and Syrah. But to say that there should be a high end Brunello (100% sangiovese) and a lesser one with different varieties both called Brunello it's not fair to the certain producers and the consumers. Change the disciplinary or start bottling as IGT.
Vito Candela, Florida, USA
The case with Montalcino is very different than that of Chianti Classico, where the appellation's "disciplinare" for many years didn't allow 100% Sangiovese, and required white grapes. The appellation had a low reputation for quality, and many producers making high-quality wines had to either bottle as Vino da Tavola (or later, IGT), or simply "cheat" and use 100% Sangiovese, as some well-known producers have claimed. Clearly there was some need for change in the Chianti appellation, and though arguably not all of the change has been good, Chianti is in a much better place than it was a couple of decades ago.
Montalcino, however, has a strong tradition of 100% Sangiovese, and a high reputation for quality. Moreover, Brunello is the name of a grape variety, and while EU laws allow varietal labeling with only 85% of that variety, I suggest that in the context of Brunello's tradition, blends would be misleading, and in some sense disloyal to the appellation which has always been held forth as the supreme expression of Sangiovese. Montalcino, unlike much of Chianti, also has a perfectly serviceable DOC (Sant'Antimo) for those who want to bottle blends. There's no question that some Sangiovese-based blends can be great, but they should not be called Brunello. I have no problem with producers making money -- after all, all romantic ideas aside, wine is a business -- but Brunello is a shared, historical trademark, and diluting the value of the Brunello name serves neither the producers
nor the consumers in the long term.
Doug Cook
Gaja's suggestion is yet another time when the greed of producers overcomes the historical basis of the appellation and in turn, the wine itself. When do producers cease to degrade the past in pursuit of the almighty euro? When will consumers stop trying to purchase wine from around the world that tastes the same? Italian Wines should look smell, and taste like Italy. PERIOD.
Wine should always be indicative of its place of origin. It should be undeniable. We should be honor bound to have wine accurately convey its birthplace. If it should all taste the same, what is the point? The beauty of wine, like everything in life, is in the differences.
Antonio Gianola, Houston, USA
Angelo Gaja is absolutely wrong. Brunello is Brunello because it IS 100% Sangiovese. This is what put Brunello on the map and the reason it is famous. Because of it's particular combination of grape, soil, topography, etc... Let anything less than 100% Sangiovese be called IGT or something else. "Chianti" is no longer Chianti and has been ruined in my opinion by the addition of Cabernet and Syrah. Let the "volume" producers(which he strives to be eventually) call their product "Super Brunello" or something. Allowing a few volume producers to bend and change the rules to their own benefit degrades and denigrates the quality and reputation that Brunello has built over the 50 years(or however long it is). Tell Angelo to stay up in Piedmont and monkey around with and degrade his Barolos rather than bugger up Brunello.
Howard Bernstein
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I agree with Angelo Gaja in part. The same was done in Chianti Classico when many producers started using varieties outside of the appellation. The disciplinary was modified and now you can use Merlot, Cab Sauv and Syrah. But to say that there should be a high end Brunello (100% sangiovese) and a lesser one with different varieties both called Brunello it's not fair to the certain producers and the consumers. Change the disciplinary or start bottling as IGT.
