It’s almost impossible to imagine that the 1985 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva La Storica has just celebrated its thirty-sixth birthday. It displays a brilliant ruby red color and amazing clarity in the glass, with only the slightest bricking around the rim. The bouquet alone is enough to keep you at the edge of your seat, as if opening a cedar treasure box to find dusty rose and sour cherry offset by spiced orange, crushed dried sage and just the slightest hint of animal musk. This is total class, cool-toned and poised, seeming to hover across the palate with an air of red inner florals, as tart woodland berries mix with hints of black tea and lemon oils. There’s a bolt of nervous acidity that keeps the experience remarkably fresh, but also adds a highly attractive sweet and sour note. And finally, while structured and youthful in feel, it finishes completely fresh, vibrant even, with dried currants enlivened by nuances of grapefruit and mint that linger on and on. This is an experience wine in every sense of the word, hailing from a dry and warm harvest yet exemplifying the purity of Sangiovese, as well as its ability to mature for well over three decades. The 1985 La Storica comes directly from the winery’s aging vault, and it was reconditioned with a new cork in 2000. EG

Celebrated, elegant and ageworthy, the 1985 vintage was extreme in Tuscany, with a particularly hard winter and very hot summer. The main character of this vintage is to show an extremely youthful fruit character, and this Brunello does not disappoint. The bottle was topped up twice; in 2000 and in 2010. There is great concentration here and the wine changes a lot in the glass. The frame of the aromas is built on dried prunes, Mediterranean herbs and tobacco, with truffle, cinnamon, potpourri, cedar wood and earthy tones. The stunning savouriness of the nose is confirmed on the palate, with zesty acidity in a perfect Franco Biondi Santi style, powdery, super-extracted tannins, big shoulders and fierce tension on the finish. An extremely youthful wine with further potential for ageing. Drinking Window: 2022 - 2035
Tasted by: Aldo Fiordelli (at Ritz, London, 08 Nov 2022)
Part of Aldo Fiordelli: My top wines of 2022

It looks like at some stage the B-S wines just don't lose colour any further. This is a little more developed than the 2015 Riserva (with which it was tasted) but not by much. Deep balsamic nose with hints of dried cherry and with aeration perfumed fruit. Really deep and a little mysterious. Spice and hints of orange skin. Keeps on evolving and changing in the glass. Truly multi-layered and with the classic Biondi-Santi waxy cherry fruit. Vibrant acidity and then gorgeous cool cherry. Waxy hints and fantastic fine long tannins. Drink: now - 2038
Walter Speller - March 2022