2016 Brunello di Montalcino
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Tasting notes
Dark and brooding, the 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Piaggione slowly awakens from its slumber with a delicate bouquet of dried roses and strawberries offset by camphor and dusty earth. This is a model of purity, with cooling acidity and lifted red and hints of blue fruit carried across a mineral-laden core of tart cherries and spice. A subtle tug of fine tannin lingers, framing the experience more than slowing its momentum. The 2016 tapers off long, tactile and perfumed, leaving pretty inner rose and clove notes. The minerality and lift provided by Piaggione’s calcareous soils are stunning. While drinking this today can be pleasurable, waiting is highly recommended.
Critic scores
Average Score
Walter Speller, jancisrobinson.com
Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Piaggione pulls you deeper and deeper into the glass with an alluring display of floral-tinged wild berries, balsamic spices and sweet pipe tobacco. For all of the intensity on the nose, the palate is incredibly pure and energetic, offering notes of plum and currants cascading across a core of bright acidity. This is a mix of opulent pleasure and tension, tapering off to a nuanced coating of tannins and a mix of blue and purple-tinged inner florals. There is much more balance here than I recall, as the Piaggione is coming along beautifully in the bottle.
Mid ruby with the beginning of orange tinges. Savoury oak and sweet cherry nose. Concentrated cherry fruit struggling with the rustic, slightly drying tannins. (WS)
The Salicutti 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Piaggione draws its fruit from a small 1.2-hectare parcel that sits a little lower in altitude on this beautiful bijou estate. Piaggione is one of the historic single-vineyard wines made here, and its personality is generous, open knit and elegant. The oak is well integrated and the wine offers taut, fresh and pure fruit intensity. There are bright berry and sour cherry aromas with blue flower, rosemary and a touch of crushed stone. Production for this pretty wine is 7,760 bottles.