You are going to like the 2008 Brunello di Montalcinos recently released on the market, and love the 2007 Riservas and single vineyard Brunellos.

The 2008 vintage for Brunello di Montalcino is a pretty year producing balanced and delicious wines for current drinking with a number of clearly outstanding wines. It’s certainly not at the quality level of the great 2006 or 2007, but outstanding all the same.

And the 2007 Brunello di Montalcino Riservas just on the market underline the greatness of the year with dozens of must-buy bottles for the Italian wine lover. We will be enjoying the 2007 Brunellos as well as 2006s for the rest of our lives.

“The 2008s are Brunellos that you will be able to drink now while you are waiting for your 2006s or 2007s,” says Filippo Fanti, a consistently top Brunello producer labeling his wines under his family name. “They are more forward and easier to drink now than the two vintages before.”

I couldn’t agree more with Fanti. I tasted close to 250 Brunello di Montalcinos in blind tastings at my office in Tuscany in January – 2008 Brunello di Montalcino and 2007 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva. And I was super impressed with the 2007 Riservas and happy with the 2008 Brunellos.

The 2007 Brunello Riservas show the flamboyant fruit character of this extraordinary vintage, but the extra aging has buttressed the wines more, giving them beautiful form and reserve. One more year of aging (usually in bottle) gives the wines more of a chance to integrate. Plus, many of the wines are a selection of the best wines or vineyard/vineyards of a single producer.

“We are very proud of our riserva Brunellos in 2007,” said Enrico Viglierchio, general manager of Castello Banfi. “We have made a lot of small improvements in the vineyards and winemaking to improve our wines.”

My top 2007 Brunello di Montalicino Riservas and single vineyard wines include: Valdicava Madonna del Piano Riserva (98 points), Casanova di Neri Cerretalto (97), Castello Banfi Poggio alle Mura Riserva (97), and La Serena Gemini Riserva (97). I gave another six wines 96 points in my tastings. They were all 2007s: Citille di Sopra Innocenti Riserva, Poggio Il Castellare Pian Bossolino Riserva, San Filippo Le Lucere Riserva, Sirio Pacenti PS, Uccelliera Riserva, and Villa I Cipressi Zebras.

“It’s a wine for long-term aging,” says Giacomo Neri of his single vineyard Cerretalto, which is aged 30 months in wood and 30 months in bottle. “It is always powerful yet elegant. It is a very special soil.”

I am curious how many Brunello producers will be making single vineyard wines or riservas in 2008. The year is outstanding but not a great one. Not only was the summer problematic, particularly with hail hitting some vineyards in mid-August, but Brunello growers had to contend with intermittent rain during the harvest in late September and early October.

“We made outstanding wines in 2008 but the vintage was not an easy one,” admits Giancarlo Pacenti, who made two outstanding Brunellos in the vintage.

In fact, I only found one 2008 Brunello that was a “must buy,” or 95 points or more: Luce della Vite Brunello di Montalcino Luce. It’s very structured for the year with complex aromas and flavors of fruit and earth. This has lots of style. I also found many other outstanding wines that will satisfy anyone who loves Brunello. The vintage reminds me of the delicious 2005 vintage, or 1998. These were both early drinking vintages but improved with age.

Check out the reviews below of my Top 100 Brunellos tasted in January 2013. More reviews will be posted in the future.