At Zi’s birthday celebration. Wine was courtesy of James.

In the glass: this was a bright ruby core with a garnet rim. Mid- body.

On the nose: distinct vanilla oakiness, sweet vanilla beans, dense red fruit and sweet cherry. Fresh off the bottle, I thought this was a more complex nose with an earthiness not found in the previous rosso. I loved it, and my initial thought was whoa this could be even better than the rosso!

On palate: it’s the usual solid Brunello – high acidity, grippy and consistent tannins. Surprisingly long finish. The thing that surprised me was that there seems to be a lot of residual sugar in this one? This, coupled with the long finish, ended up fatiguing my tongue a lot and felt cloying on the tongue. I tried cleansing my palette with water and bread but nope. This was very very sweet.

With time in the glass, the wine actually gave up its earthy tones which was sucha bummer, seeing as that’s what made it prefer it over the Poggio Rosso initially for a tiny window.

This was a damn good Brunello overall, but the singular flaw (to me) was that sweetness which overwhelmed me quite quickly. I’m so curious if others felt the same. Rating this 3.9, solely because I would avoid buying it myself because of the sweetness. Otherwise, this is a very good Brunello, and I would’ve rated this a strong 4.2 if it was drier.