Over the past few days, I have tasted a number of 2007 Brunello di Montalcino that have just come onto the market. Having screened them in Tuscany in February with Tim Atkins and Wojchiech Bonkowski at Benvenuto, many were known entities. The vintage, in fact, has lots of pleasant surprises, but I realise today that I prefer the 2006s, which were quite difficult to review at the same time last year, principally because of their austere tannic structure. It would appear that the warmer parts of the region south of Montalcino fared best in the cooler 2006 vintage. The less sundrenched vineyards from the north generally showed better in 2007, which was much warmer. My favourites at the presentation earlier this year were Canalicchio, Canalicchio di Sopra, Capanna, Caprili, Castiglion del Bosco, Giani Brunelli, Lisini, Corte Pavone, Poggio Antico, Salvioni, Talenti and Uccelliera. A number of other estates only offered their wines to a few journalists in a bar - albeit with a lovely view - downtown. There, Fuligny and Salicutti shone. A tour of the intransigent producers who demand a personal appearance added Poggio di Sotto, Pieve di Santa Restituta, Biondi Santi and Casanova di Neri to the short list of first rate 2007s. Neri's Riserva from 2006, the Cerrealto, is a monument and probably the finest red that I tasted that week. I pencilled 97 points into my notebook. Comments