Non-vintage bottlings are more frequent in the sparkling, fortified, and sweet wine spaces than for still wines. Some of the existing non-vintage still wines are flagships in their estate portfolios both in terms of quality and price (see, for example, Abacus and Reserva Especial). But that is not the case for the subject of this post, Il Palazzone's Rosso del Palazzone (RdP).
In my discussions with Laura, she pointed me to two articles which distill the essence of RdP. The first article detailed Sauternes' introduction of a 4- to 5-year vintage blend which is much more accessible in terms of drinkability and price -- it is six times lower in cost than the estate label. The specific objective of the initiative is to get "people to enjoy the wine in a more relaxed way."
The second article was from the New York Times' Eric Asimov and described a wine class he called "thirst quenchers" (vins de soif in French and quaffers in England, according to Eric). These are "unpretentious wines that are measured not by their complexity, length or ageability but by the joy and refreshment they provide ... Generally they are relatively low in alcohol and high in acidity ... These wines cam come from anywhere ... They should be relatively inexpensive."
With this context in mind, let us take a closer look at RdP.
Rosso del Palazzone came about with Laura's elevation to General Manager in 2008. She inherited a cellar with "various dribs and drabs" and, given the complexity of managing DOCG compliance and accountability and the small lot sizes that abounded, they hit upon the idea of producing Rosso del Palazzone. In the short term, it would allow them to efficiently dispose of the inherited cellar without running afoul of the Consorzio and, in the longer term, would allow them to partially (and flexibly) plug the product hole left by the 2000 decision to discontinue the production of an appellation-approved Rosso.
Il Palazzone does not grow grapes destined for an RdP. Rather, it sets out to grow grapes for its Brunello products. After hand-harvesting, the grapes are vinified and stored separately based on the source vineyard. Once the Brunello blend is determined, the excluded barrels are declassified to become RdP stock. On average, the declassified wine will have spent 10 to 24 months in large Slavonian oak barrels.
Il Palazzone has a stock of these wines and will blend them for each bottling. According to Laura, blending is to taste and with an eye on the customers' desire for "an authentic hit of Montalcino Sangiovese straddling old (wood aging, tertiary depth) and zippy youth." The wine bottling-date is indicated by the lotto number in the lower right of the label. It can be used to determine the wine composition using the key provided in the chart below.
Approximately 10,000 bottles of RdP are produced annually.
You do not run into Il Palazzone products in my neighborhood wine shops so I was pleasantly surprised in August of last year when I saw bottles of the RdP at one of the local haunts. I bought a few bottles and couldn't wait to let Laura know that (i) I had seen her wine on the store shelf and (ii) I had drunk the wines and thought they were tasty. She asked after the lotto number. It was 01/16. She indicated that that was a blend of 2011 and 2014 wines, two vintages in which they opted to not produce Brunellos. One of the vintages, she said, was too hot and would have made an unbalanced and blowsy Brunello while the other had been incredibly rainy and the resulting wine was therefore too low in alcohol and high in acidity to make an estate-worthy Brunello. Together they were a perfect blend for the Rosso.
The coat of arms on the label above includes the name Parsons, the former owner. With new owners come new labels (and the Kern coat of arms) and these will be introduced with the 2/21 bottling (available January 2022). A representation of the new label is provided below.
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| Photo credit: Raffaella Cova |
It seems as though Il Palazzone is out ahead of the pack with its RdP product. According to Monty Waldin, noted Brunello expert, "A small but growing number of producers in Montalcino are releasing non vintage red wines blended from different years. The first winery to do so was Il Palazzone with its Rosso del Palazzone ... Other estates to have followed this lead include Le Ragnaie, Cupano, and Campo di Fonterenza."
In a discussion more than five years ago Laura told me "one of the special aspects of smaller wineries is that there are no fixed recipes or kneejerk logistical decisions but that we can behave in a very intuitive way both in the vineyard and in the cellar." That sort of intuitive reaction to the problem presented by a jumble of small lots yielded the pathbreaking (for Montalcino anyway) vins de soif that we know as Rosso del Palazzone.
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