Salicutti, Brunello di Montalcino, Piaggione 2016

The Salicutti 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Piaggione draws its fruit from a small 1.2-hectare parcel that sits a little lower in altitude on this beautiful bijou estate. Piaggione is one of the historic single-vineyard wines made here, and its personality is generous, open knit and elegant. The oak is well integrated and the wine offers taut, fresh and pure fruit intensity. There are bright berry and sour cherry aromas with blue flower, rosemary and a touch of crushed stone. Production for this pretty wine is 7,760 bottles.

The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Piaggione pulls you deeper and deeper into the glass with an alluring display of floral-tinged wild berries, balsamic spices and sweet pipe tobacco. For all of the intensity on the nose, the palate is incredibly pure and energetic, offering notes of plum and currants cascading across a core of bright acidity. This is a mix of opulent pleasure and tension, tapering off to a nuanced coating of tannins and a mix of blue and purple-tinged inner florals. There is much more balance here than I recall, as the Piaggione is coming along beautifully in the bottle.