Brunello di Montalcino

Score

94

"Intensely earthy nose of dried porcini mushrooms and truffles. Perfumed, fresher fruit on the palate with red cherries, cranberries and some dark chocolate. This is a well structured, full red with grippy yet fine-grained and pretty tannins. Give it a few years to soften. Drink after 2024."

Score

94

"The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino offers richness and extra fruit density with fleshy cherry and plum followed by spice, tar, tobacco and campfire ash. This expression embraces a contemporary taste profile with fermentation and aging in oak. This results in softness and textural richness that feels especially velvety and snug in this vintage. There is some tightness on the tannins but that should subside within the next few years. Some 10,000 bottles were produced."

Score

93

"The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino is a dark and brooding expression of the vintage. Crushed plums, black cherry, tobacco and moist soil tones form up in the glass. It’s velvety-smooth, cast across a medium-bodied frame with balancing acids and a polished display of blackberry, balsamic spice and inner violet florals. The density and concentration of primary fruits combined with the wine’s fine tannin profile promises many years of development. That said, there’s something deeply alluring, almost animalistic and slightly rustic about the 2016 Poggio Nardone that keeps me coming back to the glass."

Score

94

"A ripe but composed Brunello di Montalcino with tar, leather, dried brambleberries, dried tea leaves and ash. Chewy and foursquare on the full-bodied palate; the rustic tannins give this a silty, grainy quality. Decadent and powerful. Drink from 2025."

Score

93

"This is a lovely expression of Sangiovese with a full and generous disposition. The Poggio Nardone 2015 Brunello di Montalcino offers bright cherry, cassis, raspberry and other red berry fruits. Those fruity high notes are followed by savory tones of forest floor, candied orange peel, autumnal leaf and baking spice. The wine offers a smooth and silky mouthfeel with well-integrated tannins and a long, polished finish. This is a clean and compact interpretation of Brunello with the amped up and generous characteristics of this sunny vintage. Here is a generous Brunello worthy of a Fiorentina steak. Some 25,000 bottles comprised this release."

Score

92

"The nose shows pretty red berry fruits, with sweet florals and cinnamon, as peppery herbs, moist earth, and a hint of crushed plum emerge. On the palate, silky textures contrast a mix of mineral-infused cherry and spice, all energized by zesty acidity, as fine tannins slowly mount, yet the Poggio Nardone remains juicy and fresh. The finish is medium in length and understated, resonating on wild berry fruits, leather and inner floral tones, with just a hint of sour-sweet reduction sauce. The 2015 Poggio Nardone captures all of the best qualities of the year, in a balanced and fruit-forward package with just the right amount of wood influence to give it a tactile feel without ever losing momentum."