2011 Brunello di Montalcino Montosoli

Tasted blind. Dark ruby with bright orange rim. Garden herbs, spice and deep brooding fruit. Amazing concentration of sweet fruit and firm tannins to support it. Very ripe for the vintage and still needs to shed its youthfulness. Long and a little unpolished. (WS)

Confected, candied cherry fruit. Certainly flavoursome, but has a slightly generic quality to the fruit. Quite a bit of acetic aroma too. (RH)

The 2011 Brunello di Montalcino Montosoli provides one of the most beautiful tastes of Brunello in 2011. The secret here is that the fruit is sourced from the Montosoli cru on the northern side of the appellation, which performed very well in this warm vintage. The wine achieves an excellent balance between power and elegance. It makes a statement without ever feeling overwhelming. That intensity comes through as fruit freshness—cherry, blackberry, and currant. It also emerges as spice, tobacco, and leather. The mouthfeel is exceedingly smooth and silky. The tannins are integrated and soft. Montosoli is planted to a special clone that is re-grafted when the vines die. The clone has never been replaced. Because the vineyard is located on the north side of the appellation, it was protected from the heat in this vintage. This wine will be released in April 2016.