Brunello Di Montalcino, 2018
One of the great Brunellos, Poggio di Sotto’s 2018 is a gorgeous wine. Ripe and sumptuous with a cherry-laced, strawberry and balsamic-sweet bouquet, the palate offers up a rich seam of brambly herbs, garrigue and red and black cherries. Complexing savoury notes of leather and sandalwood, with hints of white pepper knock with melting velvety tannins and a juicy, supple line of acidity that makes the 2018 a joy to drink. Though clearly ageworthy it already offers an enormous amount of pleasure thanks to its overall luminous, aromatic feel. The 2018 feels measured and mid-weight, a harmonious representation of the vintage. The 2018 was bottled after 30 months in oak. There is so much to love here.
critic reviews
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.
The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino continues to be an atypical wine for Poggio di Sotto, yet one that shouldn’t be missed. It’s savory with an herbal tinge up front, giving way to dried roses, strawberries, incense, exotic spice and worn leather. This is surprisingly juicy and lifted in style, with vibrant acidity propelling its tart wild berry fruits easily across the palate. A sour twang of cranberry resonates as the 2018 finishes lightly structured and long, leaving a staining of licorice that lingers on and on and on.
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.