Dark raspberry jam, flowers, mint, spices and French oak all burst from the glass as the 2007 Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto shows off its personality. Stacked to the core with fruit, the 2007 Cerretalto needs time to lose some of its baby fat, but it is undeniably appealing. The flashy, ripe style of the year comes through loud and clear on the voluptuous, generous finish. Cerretalto remains one of the most distinctive wines in Montalcino.

This has always been one of my favorite vintages of this spectacular single-vineyard wine from Montalcino. In fact, I had previously scored the 2007 Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto a perfect 100-points before I started working for Robert Parker Wine Advocate. I am tempted to do the same here, save for the fact I have the memory of the 2010 vintage with that super firm and precise elegance so fresh in my mind. This wine is larger, richer and more textured. There is a broader, looser quality to this wine's fruity extraction and composition. This expression has more meat or flesh on those bones. Giacomo Neri does some of his best work in these warm vintages that add so much fruit and balsam-like intensity. The 2007 Cerretalto is drinking beautifully right now, and I have no doubt that it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. It has entered what I believe will be a long and successful drinking plateau.

(15% alcohol): Bright deep ruby. Deep aromas of redcurrant, camphor, dried flowers and sweet spices. Broad and sweet on entry, but with building vinosity framing the flavors of chocolatey redcurrant, spices, camphor and rose petal. Still youthfully closed today but already quite suave, with complicating flinty minerality. Finishes with serious palate-saturating breadth and big, broad tannins. This might be the first time that I actually liked a young Cerretalto, a wine that in the past was far too full of graphite and other aromas and flavors I don't want in my glass of sangiovese (IWC readers will remember I rated the 2001 only 89 points). Owner Giacomo Neri says the graphite is a characteristic of this particular vineyard, but I am glad to see this quality being expressed to a lesser degree in recent Cerretalto vintages. I'm very glad to report that in the 2007 vintage, Cerretalto is firing on all cylinders.