2019 "Vigna del Suolo" Brunello di Montalcino

Hauntingly dark, the 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Vigna del Suolo wafts up with a dusting of cocoa, violet pastille and sweet sage complementing red currants. It’s like pure velvet slowly draped across the palate, weighty and youthfully dense with masses of mineral-laden dark red fruits that swirl over a steadily building wall of fine tannins. The 2019 finishes with tremendous length and structure, displaying fantastic balance. A bump of residual acidity refreshes the senses, and balsam herbs slowly fade. This is a Vigna del Suolo that’s built for the ages.

- Eric Guido (11/2023)

Plenty of dark-fruit notes of black cherries, brambles and dried herbs, followed by dried-meat and sweet-tobacco undertones. Medium-bodied with crunchy, fine-grained tannins and vigorous acidity. Very precise and dense, yet beautifully balanced and piquant. Great aging potential. Try after 2027. (11/2023)

The 2019 Brunello Di Montalcino Vigna Del Suolo pours a medium youthful red hue and takes a nervous and wonderful energy on opening. Perfumed and mineral-tinged, it reveals notes of gravelly earth, rosewater, raspberry liqueur, and lifted fresh herbs. Medium-bodied, with a linear feel, it’s vibrant with fresh acidity, fine tannins, and a long mineral and citrus-noted finish. It strikes a great balance between elegance and nobility and is a wine that will benefit from another year or two in bottle and drink well 2025-2045. (02/2024)

Iron, mineral and wild herb aromas and flavors frame the cherry and raspberry fruit in this sleek, racy red, which is harmonious and full of energy, with a long aftertaste driven by the firm structure and bracing acidity, as well as flint and stone elements. This is special. Best from 2027 through 2043. 430 cases made, 99 cases imported.

- B.S.

The Argiano 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Vigna del Suolo has an elegant, ever-changing bouquet with black fruits and a pronounced mineral signature of dusty slate and crushed stone. With 63-year-old vines, this site is located along the picturesque, cypress-lined dirt road that leads to this imposing castello (one of the greatest architectural works in Italian wine). The bouquet fleshes out to show tobacco leaf, linden tree, balsam herb, exotic spice and an especially fresh quality of berry fruit that sits somewhere on the cusp of over-ripeness. The fruit tastes sweet but in a delicately measured way, and the tannins are elegant with dryness that is not overdone. This is a very pretty wine (with only 5,000 bottles made).

- Monica Larner (12/2023)