Special bottle of wine that we saved for an anniversary dinner at Sons and Daughters in San Francisco.
After racking through our wine collection, this felt like the best fit for such a special occasion and special meal, while still balancing the sustainability-focused menu at Sons and Daughters, especially with my wife and I both having vegetarian menus.
Opened with a half bottle of Vilmart & Cie Champagne (enjoyable, palate-cleansing wine, 90 points) before moving onto the Biondi-Santi.
Now, we've had Biondi-Santi a few times before, but usually much younger ones, and I've only had the Riserva once (from 2011), so my expectations were sky-high.
I'm not sure what the story of this particular bottle is, but I have a feeling it had really strong provenance for three reasons.
The first is I bought this directly from K&L (not on auction) and they've been very trustworthy with aged wines.
Second is it arrived in an OWC, although one that looks a little more modern, and I generally feel better about wines stored in OWC, because even if not in perfect storage conditions, at least it's more insulated from light damage.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, it came with a QR code to verify authenticity via Ethereum, a technology that obviously didn't exist in 1999 (and wasn't really used for wine until 2018). This indicates to me that this was a winery-direct library release, instead of a bottle bought on release that traded many hands.
All of this background is to provide context why my experience with this wine may be meaningfully different than some of the other recent notes on CT.
We let the Sons and Daughters staff handle the bottle and decide the right course. They ultimately decided to splash decant, to remove sediment, then immediately pour back into the bottle, which was the right decision.
We started drinking this on maybe the fourth or fifth course and paced out drinking this perfectly, so our last sip was right after the last savory course.
The first pour was a little flat and muted, which isn't unusual for a 27-year-old wine.
But this woke up nicely over the course of dinner and by the second glass, the tannins, acidity, and fruit came back to the surface!
Still a good amount of fruit in this, with dark cherry, dried plums, and blueberries, maybe some cassis.
Also some great secondary notes with rosemary and dried cloves, as well as some slight saunf (fennel).
Tertiary starting to creep in as well, slight leather, maybe cigar box, but definitely not fully mature.
My sense on this wine is it's more "middle-aged" than fully mature and there's a long life ahead of this.
1999 was a legendary vintage with Brunello, due to the non-extreme temperatures (spring was wet, but not damaging; summer was warm, but not extreme), but with unusually pronounced diurnal temperature variations (80F days, 50F nights) that helps preserve acidity.
It's interesting that, in retrospect, critics loved 1997 vintage (some called it the "vintage of the century" for Brunello) because it was hot, ripe, and more approachable, whereas 1999 was more muted initially in their youth. But now 1997 is looking a little tired, while 1999 continues to be on the up-and-up.
In love with this wine, wish I had purchased more, but for now, will remain a lovely memory, as I chase down more 1999 Brunello.
94 points.
by rnjbond