Soldera Brunello Dinner at Escopazzo on S. Beach

"Wine is a living liquid containing no preservatives. Its life cycle comprises youth, maturity, old age, and death. When not treated with reasonable respect it will sicken and die." - Julia Child

It is wines like the ones produced by Gianfranco Soldera are the reason that I get out of bed in the morning.  The limited production and the ethereal quality make these Brunellos very hard to find and incredibly expensive. This wine may get harder to find in Florida as rumor has it that The Italian Wine Merchants out of Ney York will now be the exclusive U.S. importers of Gianfranco Soldera's wines.  The info about the Soldera Estate came from their site and this is one of the best places to buy Italian wine in this country.  This evening we will be featuring 11 different wines from this producer and the 1982 Biondi Santi paired to a special five course tasting menu by Chef Giancarla Bidoni. The fee for this event is $450 all-inclusive for reservations call 954-523-9463.

1982 Soldera Case Basse Brunello di Montalcino

This is a five star vintage according to the Gambero Rosso but there are no notes available for this wine on-line.  You will be some of the only people to have tasted this epic vintage from this legendary producer.

1982 Biondi Santi Brunello di Montalcino Il Greppo

(92 Points)  Great depth, structure and fruit, showing toasty raspberry and plum flavors , hints of cedar and anise, long, tight, tannic and beautifully focused. Drink toward the end of the next decade. Wine Spectator Issue: Oct 15, 1988

1985 Soldera Case Basse Brunello di Montalcino

(89 Points)  Has a solid core of intensely concentrated fruit, with tiers of rich, ripe raisin, black cherry, raspberry and anise flavors that fan out on the palate and stay with you through the finish. It's going to need time, though; best around 1996 or '97. Wine Spectator  Issue: Jul 15, 1991

1988 Soldera Case Basse Brunello di Montalcino

(92 Points)  One of the hot wines of the region. Intensely fruity with loads of character. A delicious gamy, meaty, fruity character. Medium-bodied with velvety tannins. Drink now. Wine Spectator Issue: Apr 30, 1994

1990 Soldera Case Basse Brunello di Montalcino Riserva

(92 Points)  Gorgeous, a glass full of cherries and flowers for the nose, succulent berry and cherry flavors for the mouth. Full-bodied, with full yet slightly soft tannins. Beautiful now, but will improve with age. 500 cases made.

1993 Soldera Case Basse Brunello di Montalcino Riserva

(95 Points)  The 1993 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Case Basse is sensational. A spectacular bouquet of tobacco, ginger, soy, roasted meat, black cherry, plum, and toast scents is followed by layer upon layer of fruit, sweet tannin, super ripeness, and gorgeous complexity and symmetry. This is an exceptionally complex, full-flavored Brunello di Montalcino that can be drunk now, or cellared for 10-15 years. This idiosyncratic but brilliant effort is not for everybody (few can afford it), but it represents a wine of great originality and complexity. Wine Advocate # 124, Aug 1999

1995 Soldera Case Basse Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Intistieti

(98 Points)  The 1995 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Intistieti possesses prodigious aromatics, flavor nuances, and complexity. It reveals Asian spice notes in addition to an exotic, funky incense smell to the extraordinary ripe, surreal perfume. There is also a dry, layered, intriguing texture and a finish that lasts for nearly a minute.  This wine seems to change every ten seconds or so, offering up provocative aromas and flavors. In short, I have never tasted anything quite like it. Kudos to the fanatical proprietor! I suspect the window of maturity will be 2004-2020+

1996 Soldera Case Basse Brunello di Montalcino Riserva
List $285          Sale $251        
(1 bottle available)

(87 Points)  The 1996 is a firm, austere, pinched effort revealing notes of cigar tobacco, Provencal herbs, tar, and red currants in addition to attenuated, dessicated flavors in the finish. While the bouquet merits a score in the upper eighties, the flavors are much less impressive. Some believe this type of vintage will expand and become richer with time in the bottle. However, I'm doubtful. Nevertheless, all this proves is that even Soldera can not always hit the bull's eye when vintage conditions are this challenging. After a remarkable run of great vintages for this idiosyncratic producer, Soldera has turned out a mere mortal wine in 1996, admittedly a difficult vintage for Brunello. I recognize the controversial nature of these wines, which possess high volatile acidity as well as incredible perfumes. For many tasters, they have too many things going on. However, I have loved previous vintages, even if they are among the most expensive wines in Italy. Anticipated maturity: now-2015.

1997 Soldera Case Basse Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Intistieti

Italian Wine Merchants Notes:  Garnet red color. An expansive bouquet showing strawberry, dried flowers, tobacco, minerals, and earth. Silky yet powerful on the palate, with embracing acidity and well-integrated tannins framing the structure for the rich flavors of strawberry, raspberry, rose petal, and minerals. An outstanding finish. The Brunellos from Case Basse can compete with virtually any other on the market and can age longer.

1998 Soldera Case Basse Brunello di Montalcino

(92 Points) With its delicately perfumed nose and soft, nuances of cherries, roses and minerals, the medium-bodied 1998 Brunello di Montalcino is a relatively accessible wine from this producer. It offers excellent length and balance, only the slightly coarse tannins keep the score from going higher. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2018. Wine Advocate # 168, Dec 2006

1999 Soldera Case Basse Brunello di Montalcino Riserva
List $390          Sale $343
(1 bottle available)

(95 Points)  The 1999 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is an unquestionable success. It displays heady, complex aromas of smoke, tar and scorched earth, along with plenty of sweet dark fruit and tobacco flavors, in a potent, brooding style showing a rich inner tension between its fruit and the structure of the vintage. It should drink well to age twenty-five. Even though it carries an exorbitant price tag, the Riserva is well worth the extra dollars in vintage 1999. A great effort. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2024.  Wine Advocate # 168, Dec 2006

2001 Soldera Case Basse Brunello di Montalcino Riserva

(96 Points)  Soldera's 2001 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is just as it was when I tasted it from barrel last year, which is to say monumental. This silky-textured Brunello offers an array of crushed flowers, spices and deeply-layered dark red fruit in a style that manages to be both delicate and powerful at the same time. Deceptively medium-bodied at this stage, it appears to be holding back much of its potential but will be a remarkable wine in another decade or so. This is a superb effort from Montalcino's most eccentric producer. Anticipated maturity: 2016-2031.  eRobertParker.com # 173, Oct 2007

 

 

 

Dinner Menu

Amuse
Liver and wild Mushroom Pate with Herbs and Zenzero in a Vin Santo Sauce

Pasta
Pappardelle with a Wild Boar Ragu

Entree
Osso Bucco

Cheese Course
Reggiano Parmigiano, Pecorino, Gorgonzola

Dessert
Lavender Panna Cotta with Honey Gelato Tiramesu

A bit about Gianfrano Soldera

"I’m looking for elegance, balance, pleasure, lots of aroma and above all longevity," he says. "I don’t hold with big tastings. Wines need time to develop in the glass as much as the bottle. I don’t believe in opening the bottles a long time before serving them but the culture and knowledge of a wine begins from the moment you pull the cork and lasts for 10 days. I can still feel the wines 10 days after tasting them."

The wines are aged for at last 48 months in large old oak and to give you some idea of their ageability, he says he’s drinking the 1979 now. 

Terroir is the word at Soldera’s Case Basse estate. He set out to find a great piece of land-scouring Piemonte, the Veneto, and Toscana-and settled at an abandoned, decrepit Montalcino farmhouse in 1972, planting his minute plots, Case Basse (approximately 2 hectares) and Intistieti (approximately 4.5), over a two-year period (1972 and ’73, respectively). He chose to plant Sangiovese exclusively, believing it to be the only grape that possessed a genuine synergy with the land.

What he’s done with that Sangiovese has become Montalcino’s most captivating modern legend, a tale that is set in a magical kingdom of sorts....The Case Basse estate effectually constitutes an idyllic habitat, one which has been designed to operate in a state of continuous balance, honored through a complex yet wholly organic operation. It is here that the animal kingdom reflects its most perfect self, as every contributor is there for a reason. The wife of Soldera, Graziella, nurtures her own domain in this resplendent world-a rose garden featuring over 1,500 species.

As is to be expected, Soldera exercises a precise and meticulous regimen in the vineyard, privileging a painstaking "by hand" approach to several procedures. Brunellos issuing from this realm constitute their own category, being unrivaled by any other expression bearing the Montalcino designation.

Collectors of Soldera tend to be fanatical in their pursuit of his limited-production Brunellos, and their efforts often constitute a labor of love-not only due to the wines’ scarcity, but to the labeling issues they inevitably incur. You see, Soldera’s labeling methodology doesn’t reflect the meticulous precision defining his viticultural operations; in fact, it’s the only element of his world that’s rather undisciplined. In order to begin to grasp Soldera, you have to let go of the conventional rules and temporarily suspend logic-but then again, the world of Case Basse is a separate universe, parallel to no other and effectually an entity unto itself, where not every label is what it seems to be....

Soldera drew upon Intistieti exclusively in his early years of Brunello production, as its soils were poorer than those of Case Basse, rendering it the more suited of the two to delivering wines of structure. As the estate’s eponymous cru was growing into its future role as a source of profound Brunello, Soldera put it to use in a Vino da Tavola Rosso bottling that is effectually the equivalent of a present-day Rosso di Montalcino. However, it wasn’t the only one that was being used in the Vino da Tavola role: When a wine failed to merit Soldera’s exacting qualitative specifications for the Brunello di Montalcino designation, it was classified as Vino da Tavola Intistieti. The first of these was made in 1985 (along with a Vino da Tavola from Case Basse), and while its early successors did indeed represent their source, Soldera changed things up-to great confusion-in the 1987 vintage, as the wine released under the Intistieti label was sourced from Case Basse. The rationale behind the somewhat misleading label? Nothing more profound than the fact that Soldera liked the Intistieti name, a personal preference that he chose to exercise again in both 1988 and 1991. He followed the latter of these with a Vino da Tavola Intistieti that comprised both vineyards.

Sufficiently dazed and confused? But this somewhat irrational, self-serving modus operandi doesn’t end there.

In the 1990 vintage, Case Basse made its debut Brunello showing, while Intistieti served as the source of Soldera’s Riserva. In some years, though, the normale Brunello is wholly a Case Basse production, while in others, like 1996, it is a blend of the best from both crus. Also, in 1995, Soldera produced the first riserva from Case Basse; in 2001, both crus delivered riservas. Notable vintages of Case Basse include its debuts as both a normale and a riserva expression (1990 and 1995, respectively).

What’s going on inside the bottle is just as difficult to grasp. A Soldera wine can defy translation, being prone to dramatic changes in intervals of mere seconds. Perhaps Soldera captured it best when he asked Sergio, "Can’t you taste the Case Basse in my wines?" But that taste, of course, as indicated above, is elicited and carefully transmitted through an organic methodology and precise viticultural and vinification techniques, including winter pruning, an exacting green harvest, hand cultivation of the vines, and a meticulous grape selection process. The rigorous regimen continues in the cellar, where a lengthy maceration averaging between 14 and 25 days transpires. Thereafter, the wine is aged sans temperature control in large Slavonian oak casks-presiding over a grottolike space (which enables uninhibited circulation of the air)-over the course of a five-year period (with the riservas receiving an additional year’s aging).