A modern slanting wine, the 2018 Brunello Di Montalcino is lush with wooded spices, smoky cigar box, preserved cherry, sweet tobacco, and dried roses. It is full-bodied on the palate but has a compact structure, with ripe tannins, crunchy fruits, refreshing acidity, and fantastic balance. Notes of fresh sage, dusty earth, and berries are also layered throughout. It has the potential to develop beautifully over the years into the polished leather side. This is a fantastic and sunny wine from a more transparent vintage. Drink 2025-2040.

The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino opens nicely in the glass, drawing upon more intensity and depth as it does. It shows firm lines and a fleshed-out mouthfeel that encourages plenty of layering and textural richness. That velvety quality is the enduring signature of this estate, one that has achieved consistent results over the years. The only outlier to this pretty portrait is a 15% alcohol content that, although well absorbed by the wine's texture, does risk becoming a distraction. Exactly 28,666 bottles were made.

Undeniably pretty and slightly exotic, the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino wafts up with a multifaceted bouquet of wild strawberry, fresh mint, balsam herbs, cloves and hints of sweet smoke. This is luxuriously silky and supple, enveloping the palate in ripe wild berry fruits, as a tantalizing inner sweetness and hints of tobacco forms toward the close. Saline-minerals add an almost-crunchy feel through the finish, and while tannic, it doesn't distract at all from the 2018's graceful nature, yet also energetic, as notes of plum and licorice linger on and on. This is a spectacular Brunello of the vintage.

Broad and dense, delivering plum, cherry, leather, tobacco and earth flavors underlined by assertive tannins, which show solid grip on the lingering finish. Reveals fruit buried within, so give this some time to integrate more fully. Best from 2026 through 2045. 2,388 cases made, 1,200 cases imported.