Last week VinoWire editor Franco Ziliani traveled to London where he tasted 93 bottlings of 2004 Brunello in the London offices of The World of Fine Wine. The tasting was organized by editors Anastasia Edwards, Sara Morely, and Neil Beckett. Nicolas Belfrage MW and Roy Richards were also part of the tasting panel.

The panel tasted 48 wines the first day and 42 the next. “With the quantity of tannins, natural and added,” wrote Franco yesterday at his blog Vino al Vino, “and the rushed, emergency enologic intervention revealed by too many samples, your mouth is literally devastated” by such a massive tasting.

“The level of disappointment was noteworthy,” according to Franco. “There were too many wines that did not even remotely rise to the legendary fame (and prices) of the great Sangiovese of Montalcino.”

The comprehensive results of the tasters’s scores will be published in an upcoming issue of The World of Fine Wine. In Franco’s preview, he reveals that of the 93 wines tasted, he scored only 16 wines in the “very good” and “outstanding” categories, while he scored 18 wines in the “good” category.

Franco’s top wines? “The Greppo Riserva by Franco Biondi Santi ‘triumphed’ in the tasting, with two tasters — Nicolas Belfrage and myself — giving it a shiny 19 out of 20 points,” wrote Franco. High marks were also give to other “classic” producers that “represent solid and certain value and a true guarantee of quality for the consumer”: Giulio Salvioni, Poggio di Sotto, Lisini, Col d’Orcia, Gorelli Le Potazzine, Gianni Brunelli, Piancornello, Caprili, Mastrojanni, Quercecchio, and Ciacci Piccolomini.

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