Poggio di Sotto : Brunello di Montalcino 2018

2018 was a tricky vintage, with summer rain, fog and mould, requiring selective harvesting and careful sorting. Yet estates with ample resources such as Poggio di Sotto did make good wines. Here, firm cherry and raspberry aromas become more fragrant with aeration, while the palate is very fresh, with tension and precision. There's less volume and flesh than some other vintages, but it's juicy and lively thanks to the acidity. It's accessible but doesn't lack structure and grip. Long.

Brilliant ruby red. An intense and inviting nose, ripe black cherries, raspberries and strawberries, some tobacco notes in the background. On the palate, wonderfully rich, plenty of fresh, appealing fruit, plums and cherries as well as goji berries, finely meshed tannins, juicy and long.

Tasted as part of a short vertical at the estate, the 2018 Brunello Di Montalcino shows a bright ruby color and an aromatic profile of cranberries, orange oils, fresh spice, anise, and crushed stones. The palate is beautifully pure, with raspberry notes, a linear feel, and wonderful elegance, along with fine tannins and a long, graceful finish. This more elegant, Burgundian-style vintage is showing beautifully today and can be enjoyed over the next 20 years.

The Poggio di Sotto estate lies in the beautiful south-eastern zone of the DOCG in Castelnuovo dell’Abate facing towards Mont Amiata, a sacred mountain to the Etruscans. This 2018 Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino has a beautifully precise and bright, spicy, red fruit quality on the nose. On the palate it is tightly wrought and a little closed and reserved right now. It is medium-bodied and lighter in concentration than usual but nothing feels heavy, over extracted or forced about this wine. There is a graceful harmony on the palate although the vintage was cooler and more classic. Poggio di Sotto have made a fresh, lively wine that has beautiful balance and flow.

The nose conveys freshness (a cool summer and spring during the vintage) with a mentholated edge (pine needle and mint aromas), herbal tones (blackcurrant bud) and tart red-fruit notes (morello cherry, raspberry, crunchy strawberry, redcurrant, blackcurrant), joined by a zesty touch of citrus (bergamot, blood orange peel). There are also spicy hints of licorice and nutmeg, along with a touch of toasted almond. The palate is slender, elegant, rather firm, yet offers a deliciously fruity core (tangy strawberry, sour cherry, raspberry, blackcurrant, morello cherry, redcurrant); the citrus character reappears (blood orange peel, bergamot) together with herbal notes of blackcurrant bud and pine needles. A delicate tang runs through the roasted nuances — more cocoa nib than chocolate — as well as notes of licorice and a racy minerality (dry stone, a faint earthy touch) and undergrowth. Finely wrought and delicate on the palate, with fine, polished tannins.

Attractive nose of salted plums, sour cherries, dried roses and rosemary stems. Firm yet sleek, with a medium to full body and layers of fresh fruit with delicious herb undertones. Drink or hold.

The nose is metallic, earthy and stony, with cherry undertones providing levity. Cherries take a star turn on the palate, with strawberries and raspberries playing crucial supporting roles, while a tension between astringent orange and creamy mocha emerges on the lengthy finish. Robust tannins and fiery acidity prove ageworthiness. Drink 2028–33 or beyond.

The Poggio di Sotto 2018 Brunello di Montalcino has a core of bright cherry fruit and baking spice that is surrounded by a ferrous note of iron ore or rust that is almost salty in taste. That metallic or saline quality plays out beautifully across abundant dark berry fruit. The wine is quite immediate and up front, but when you compare it to a cooler vintage like 2013, you see just how generous and full the bouquet is at this young age. That's a nice trait to have.