2006 Brunello di Montalcino Sugarille
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Tasting notes
The 2006 Brunello di Montalcino Sugarille is a model of dark elegance, with a cooling whiff of sweet smoke, stone dust and sage paving the way for crushed blackberries and nuances of blood orange. It is beautifully resolved, with textures of weighted silk supported by tantalizing acidity as a core of luxuriously ripe red and black fruits emerges. Graphite mineral tones blend with a hint of sour citrus as nicely rounded tannins add perfect punctuation. The 2006 is showing beautifully and still has many years of positive maturity ahead of it.
Critic scores
Average Score
Walter Speller, jancisrobinson.com
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2006 Brunello di Montalcino Sugarille grounds you to the earth with a bouquet that mixes wild berries and exotic spice with flowery undergrowth and smoke. This soothes the palate with soft, fleshy textures, casting a wave of ripe red and black fruit across a core of zesty acidity, and a hint of spicy citrus helps to lift the expression. Inner earth tones and minerals linger incredibly long through the lightly structured finale, as the mouth waters for another sip. This is in a beautiful place today, and it’s wonderfully integrated.
Maturing, healthy-looking ruby with lively orange rim. Already maturing a little on the nose with tobacco leaf and hints of sweet kirsch and a hint of fruitcake. Little ethereal from the alcohol. Hint of Moroccan leather and oak. Intense and not overtly sweet. Waves of grainy tannin. Impressive but oak tannin is a little dry on the finish. Sweet dried-fruit notes on the finish. Modern! (WS)
The 2006 Brunello di Montalcino Sugarille is a tighter, darker and ulimtately more inward Brunello than the Rennina. Dark wild cherries, plums, tobacco, licorice, spices and menthol are wrapped around a substantial frame of tannic heft. Ideally the wine needs at least another few years in bottle, but it is impossible to miss the wine’s fabulous sense of poise and harmony. As always, Sugarille is a Brunello that speaks with a distinctly Piedmontese accent. It is a beautiful wine by any measure. Anticipated maturity: 2016-2026. Angelo Gaja took advantage of the weak 2005 vintage to restructure his offerings from Montalcino. In that vintage Gaja issued one straight Brunello, which consisted of the best fruit from his Rennina and Sugarille vineyards. The goal was to introduce a new label that has now become the entry-level wine from Pieve Santa Restituta. This allows for Gaja to be even more selective with the wines that carry the single vineyard designations. Unfortunately Gaja chose not to present his straight Brunello, but I will report on that wine as soon as I have chance to taste it. In the meantime, readers will want to focus on the Rennina and Sugarille, both of which are superb Importer: Terlato Wines International, Lake Bluff, IL; tel. (847) 604-8900
About the producer
Gaja has been at the forefront of the Piedmont wine scene for many years and is Barbaresco’s most decorated producer. The winery has received a record number of Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri awards – the highest accolade from Italy’s leading wine publication.