Vintage charts are not seen quite as often as they once were. This has primarily to do with the fact that global warming, better vineyard management, lower yields and later harvests have by and large relegated disasters to a footnote in history. What then do scales of one to five then have to say? I was reminded of this last Saturday at Benvenuto in Montalcino. After all due festivities, they ceremoniously placed a tile in the wall at the foot of the clock tower in the centre of town. The 2011 vintage, which is still fermenting in some cellars, has now already been awarded four stars. As I have tasted none of the wines, it is too soon for me to judge, but glancing over the past fifteen years to see essentially only four or five stars incites a preemptive scratching of the head. Comments