2018 Brunello di Montalcino
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Tasting notes
Another energetic wine, the 2018 Brunello Di Montalcino is lifted with cranberry cocktail, cinnamon, fresh herbs, and saline. Medium bodied, a spine of fresh acidity runs throughout, with good concentration up front before tapering to nervy but ripe tannins. I love the energy and drive that is linear through the palate, although the fruit falls off before the structure. Allow another couple of years and drink 2025-2030.
Critic scores
Average Score
Walter Speller, jancisrobinson.com
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino (with the black label) reveals sweet fruit, candied cherry and hints of dried apricot or nectarine. Those ripe fruit flavors give this wine an accessible and easy personality with simple lines. The wine ferments in stainless steel and ages in large Slavonian oak for 30 months. Production is 60,000 bottles.
The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino is youthfully understated in the glass, showing only hints of floral perfumes and sugar-dusted blackberries beneath a cloud of sweet smoke. This is velvety in feel, yet not heavy or dense; instead, it’s finessed with pretty red and black fruits that cascade across a core of saline minerality. While structured, this maintains a lovely balance, tapering off with crystalline tannins that frame lingering hints of tart wild berry and balsamic spice. The 2018 is focused more on grace and purity than power.
Mid ruby. Notes of spice over deep cherry aromas on the nose. Lovely purity of fruit on the palate, although still a little backward. Perfumed cherry and lots of coating tannins on the finish. Great balance. Now all it needs is a little more time. (WS)