2016 Gaja Pieve Santa Restituta Brunello di Montalcino Sugarille

Sugarille is a single vineyard site at 340 meters elevation, with galestro and limestone soils and the oldest vines of the property. The 2016 Sugarille Brunello di Montalcino has resinous aromatics of pine, menthol, cedar, and ripe black plum. The palate is full bodied, ripe with dried black cherry and sassafras, with an amplified and velvety structure, mouthwatering acidity, and a saline mineral finish. Offering depth without weight, this is a wonderfully complex wine for those who edge toward a slightly more modern style. Allow 3-5 years in the cellar and enjoy 2025-2036. Pieve Santa Restituta is the Montalcino estate of Piedmont’s iconic Gaja family.

Plenty of black cherries, cedar, dried flowers and red cherries on the nose, following through to the palate, which is dense and compressed with gorgeous, intense fruit and chewy yet integrated tannins. Very, very impressive red here. Try after 2024.

The Pieve Santa Restituta 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Sugarille opens to the dark, fruity intensity that defines this five-hectare site with schistous clay galestro-rich soils. Sugarille always shows more heft and density, and this impression is amplified in a balanced vintage such as 2016. But with the memory of the 2015 vintage fresh in my mind, I feel that this edition is slightly lither and more streamlined in terms of mouthfeel. The tannins are direct and linear, but the fruit padding is lessened compared to the slightly warm 2015 vintage. In most cases, I prefer 2016 to 2015, but in the case of Sugarille (a 10,000-bottle release), I give a tiny upper hand to the older vintage thanks to its increased complexity and richer textural fiber.