TASSI 2017 Brunello di Montalcino Montosoli DOCG Tuscany Italy

92 Points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate – Fabio Tassi’s classic annata bottling is the 2017 Brunello di Montalcino. This certified-organic wine opens to a robust and elaborate bouquet with contrasting layers of dark fruit and savory spice. It embraces a dark and more determined side of the vintage heat, showing black cherry, dried prune and smoky or earthy tones at the back. This more robust presentation would slide up comfortably to a charred grilled steak with mesquite and barbecue marinade. Production is 6,281 bottles.

92 Points Vinous – A beguiling mix of crushed stone, black currants, wild herbs and hints of animal musk smolders up from the 2017 Brunello di Montalcino. This is deeply textural and velvety in feel, but with energizing acidity to balance, as ripe wild berries and exotic spices cascade across a core of saline-minerals. There’s simply so much power and intensity within that you barely notice the grippy tannins that are slowly clamping down on the experience. A hint of balsamic-tinged cherry lingers on and on. Wow; give this a year or two of cellaring, and then enjoy it with abandon.