The opulence of fruit and complexity of earth, meat, mushroom and cedar is breathtaking. It’s full-bodied, deep and powerful with so much intensity and depth. Chewy and layered, it goes on for minutes. Give it even more time. Try after 2023.

The 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Vigna di Pianrosso Santa Caterina d'Oro is a fine and delicate wine that cleverly delivers the intensity of the vintage but without the heaviness or the ripeness. This wine holds back, just enough, to affirm its poised balance in terms of fruit richness, texture and tannic structure. It shows symmetry throughout. Dark cherry fruit, cassis, plum, lavender and campfire ash set the tone. The mouthfeel is thickly woven and generous, more so than the more linear and focused 2016 Brunello Pianrosso (that I preferred by a tiny margin). This special Riserva represents a 11,000-bottle production.-ML

Fragrant, full bodied and refined, this opens with aromas of new leather vanilla, baked plum and camphor. The palate shows an enviable combination of structure, finesse and length, doling out raspberry jam, ripe black cherry, vanilla and licorice enveloped in firm, refined tannins. KERIN O’KEEFE

There’s a bright edge to this red, harnessing the cherry, strawberry, rosehip, mineral and tobacco flavors that build on the palate to a long finish. Displays terrific energy and balance, with an aftertaste that echoes both fruit and savory elements. Best from 2024 through 2050. 833 cases made, 450 cases imported. — BS

A selection of bunches from Ciacci Piccolomini’s iron-rich Pianrosso vineyard in Montalcino’s southeast, this sees a long maceration and ageing in variously sized used Slavonian oak barrels. It strikes a fine balance of generous ripeness with freshness and juiciness. Pure strawberry, cherry and raspberry meet lilac, rose and an underlying minerality. It's fluid and almost easy to drink, though long, powdery tannins expand across the palate giving textural complexity. It leaves the mouth clean but wanting more with an appetising blood orange finish.

There’s a cooling, minty freshness to the 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Vigna Pianrosso that keeps you coming back to the glass for more. With time, it gains in richness, adding notes of plum sauce, clove and sage. It’s pleasantly ripe in nature and silky-smooth in feel, as a wave of elegant black fruits tinged with balsam herbs washes across the palate with ease, leaving salty minerals and a coating of fine tannin in its wake. This tapers off structured yet fresh, leaving a staining of primary concentration and just enough residual acidity to keep the mouth watering for more. There’s no harm in checking in on the 2015 Riserva today, but a few years of cellaring should help to even out some of its rougher contours and reveal a dark, elegant beauty of a wine. I’m very happy to be upgrading this score from my previous tasting. -- Eric Guido