A Note from Sergio
It's easy to remember the names of the winners. Mario Andretti. Lance Armstrong. Jacques Anquetil. Or, if you're talking about Brunello, Franco Biondi-Santi and Gianfranco Soldera. Much harder to remember are the names of the people who may not have gotten to hold the trophy or wear the yellow jersey, the people who labored in the middle of the pack, spurring the leaders on by nipping at their heels, nudging their bumpers, and closing in on them at the most opportune moments.
A few weeks ago, I offered you the 2006 Brunello of Biondi-Santi, and a couple of weeks before that, I offered you a selection of wines from producers whose names are almost as recognizable. This week, I'm pleased to bring you the '06 Brunellos from eight producers you might not have heard of--but whose wines are all the more spectacular for their relative anonymity. It's always the ones you haven't heard of that you need to watch out for.
Let me explain by using a bike racing metaphor. Drafting, the technique where racers take advantage of physics to ride in the wake of other riders and thus expend less energy, is something that all of us who drive cars know about. On a highway, we might choose to drive behind an eighteen-wheeler, knowing that the aerodynamics of the situation means that our car expends less energy in driving just as fast. Bike racers--and car racers, swimmers and runners too--do this mindfully; in fact, packs in bike racing are little more than a bunch of people using physics to their advantage.
Some bike racers even choose to take a role that aids others, customarily teammates, in winning. This job is called a "domestique," and the term comes from the French word for a servant, like a butler or a maid. The domestique in a bike race may help set the pace; they might ride in front of a team leader; they might even give their bike or their wheel to a downed teammate. But from time to time, a domestique will break out of the pack--and he or she will win. Greg LeMond won the Tour de France in '86 this way. Domestiques have a lot of power. They're nothing to dismiss, for they can push the pace. They can, in short, make the leaders run for their money.
The producers whose wines I'm offering you today look like middle-of-the-pack runners. However, don't be fooled by the relative anonymity. From the tiny, family-run and organically maintained estates of San Carlo or Brunelli, to the relatively large Col d'Orcia that makes shockingly value-conscious Brunellos, to the allocations-so-small-that-you'll-blink-and-miss-them San Polo, these estates make serious wines that will push the bigger, better known Brunello producers. I'm always delighted to bring lesser-known producers to my clients, especially when the wines are this good.
Here's to making great things greater, to the people who help us achieve, and to surprising victories.
My Best,
P.S. You can now follow me on Twitter: @Italian_Wine_SE.
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