2018 Brunello di Montalcino
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Tasting notes
The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino has blossomed over the last year, blending earthy notes of worn leather and dusty rose that give way to woodland berries, cinnamon and tobacco. This is cool-toned and remarkably fresh with crisp wild berry fruits complicated by orange hints as inner violet florals cascade. It finishes long and lightly structured, leaving the mouth watering for more as a slightly salty tinge lingers. The 2018 from Le Potazzine is easily one of the top wines of this challenging vintage. That said, it is also more immediate.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Walter Speller, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino maintains its exotic, aromatic and spicy profile, which features gorgeous tobacco notes and hints of brown spice. It's graceful, lifted and silken in style, with ripe wild berry fruits and a cascade of violet inner florals, all coasting across a stream of cool-toned acidity. Classically structured but not forbidding, the 2018 leaves the palate classically dry and with a hint of licorice that lingers on and on. The 2018 remains one of the top wines of the vintage.
Le Potazzine delivers solid results thanks to the impressive positioning of its vines that straddle the crown of a high-elevation plain. The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino shows bright fruit with cherry and redcurrant, and that makes all the difference. Careful oak aging has enhanced the aromas. I also feel the effects of careful cellar aging in terms of mouthfeel, especially the structure and tannins. The wine is tightly stitched together with a point of sourness on the close. Give it a few more years to soften. Some 15,500 bottles were made.
The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino takes some coaxing to come together in the glass, dusty yet floral, with crushed ashen stones and a core of plum followed by savory herbs and black currant beneath it all. This is elegance personified, casting velvety textural waves of ripe red and blue berries across the palate, all lifted by brisk acidity, and with a flourish of lavender that lights up the senses. A coating of fine tannins lingers, yet the mouth is left watering for more, as nuances of licorice and blackberry slowly fade. The 2018 is a classy rendition of the vintage, elevated by a slightly higher declassification of juice that went into the Rosso di Montalcino. I’d give it another two to three years of cellaring to come fully together.