Vivid red. Enticing nose of red/dark berries, minerals, and herbs, plus a building note of marzipan. Finishes long, rich, still youthfully chewy and with a violet topnote and noteworthy salinity. Made with grapes from the Cancello Rosso and Bassolino vineyards (the lower sections, while the plots slightly higher up of the Bassolino di Sopra section of the Bassolino vineyard were used to make the Brunello of the same name). Caroline Poizer told me that she had never seen grapes like these before: in a year in which it never rained from June 4 to September 7, the thick-skinned, small grapes “… looked like blueberries”. Ian D'Agata

This wine exudes elegant power and linear finesse. The 2012 Brunello di Montalcino Vigneti del Versante has not yet been released. In fact, it will hit the market after the younger 2013 vintage. We should expect to see it in the fall of 2018. The bouquet offers so much care and detailing that all comes together like a massive ceiling fresco in an Italian Renaissance palace. The bouquet allows for a big picture perspective with wild cherry, rose hip, dried ginger, rosemary and spice. The mouthfeel is firm, almost crunchy. Swirl the glass a few times and savory tones of moist earth and exotic tea begin to appear. This is a beautiful wine worth waiting for.