The 2006 Brunello di Montalcino is a beautiful wine laced with red berries flowers and subtle hints of earthiness. Soft and supple throughout the Brunello shows lovely juiciness in its fruit and a delicate understated personality. The 2006 represents yet another step in the more elegant refined direction the estate has taken in recent years. The 2006 Brunello was aged in equal parts cask and French oak barrels. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2020. A renewed focus on quality is in the air at Banfi. A new sorting table and smaller custom-designed tanks that allow for parcel-by-parcel vinification were added for the 2007 harvest and the first results seem promising. I tasted a number of single-clone and single-vineyard Brunelli from the 2009 vintage that showed beautifully while an approximate blend of the 2007 Brunello was also strong. It will be fascinating to watch the direction Montalcino's largest and best-known estate takes over the coming years.

A substantial and forceful sangiovese grosso, this has dark scents of fruit skin and floral, tomato leaf character. It's lean, firm and peppery in the finish, needing several years for the tannins to mature and integrate with the warmth of the wine.