2015 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva

The 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Pian di Conte (with 6,600 bottles made) offers a heavier and more oak-driven style with ripe cherry fruit, soft tannins, spice, smoke, tar and road paving. It fits its Riserva designation squarely, but in truth, I prefer the more lifted and lighter approach taken by Talenti's two 2016 Brunello releases. Those wines both show greater clarity of fruit to my palate. However, this quality is nothing to sneeze at. This is a proud, shapely and well-crafted Brunello with sweet plum, cherry and blackberry on the close. Those sweet fruit nuances are followed by spicy cedar and campfire ash.

It will be hard to keep our hands off of the 2015 Talenti Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Pian di Conte long enough to watch it fully mature. It opens up with a dark and alluring display of sweet herbs, tobacco and crushed black cherries, as hints of white smoke, sage and cedar add further depths. It’s velvety and pliant, cast over a core of motivating acidity and cooling minerals, creating a push and pull between ripeness and tension. Fine tannins lurk deep beneath it all, yet they never get in the way of the 2015’s long-lasting wild berry fruits and balsamic spice. Give this a few years in the cellar for maximum pleasure.