La Gerla Brunello di Montalcino 2016

This Brunello from La Gerla shows every bit of the understated class the estate has become renowned for. Distinguished by its rich core of fruit, this is a Sangiovese that will only improve with ageing.

94+/100 - Elegant, tight and streamlined, the La Gerla 2016 Brunello di Montalcino opens to a savory and slightly spicy bouquet. More than fruit, the first tones you get focus on tar, smoke, licorice and mixed herbs. This wine offers a very Mediterranean personality with elegant mineral notes that come out in a second wave. The wine goes through a relatively quick fermentation with about 15 days of skin contact followed by 36 months in large Slavonian oak casks. With more time in the glass, it opens to blue flower, lilac, dried berry and crème de cassis. Production is 40,000 bottles. - Monica Larner, Wine Advocate

95/100 - The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino displays depths of rich blackberry and cherry sauce with mentholated herbal tones adding lift, while notes of cedar and clove develop in the glass. Its textures are like pure silk, draped slowly across the palate, showing admirable density and weight, balanced by bright acids and minerals. This is so tightly wound up in its youthful state, yet it’s packed full of potential with a core of dark primary fruit that isn’t quite ready to reveal its charms. A web of fine tannin makes itself known only at the very end, as the 2016 slowly tapers off to hints of tobacco. The 2016 will take some time for this to come fully into focus, but it will be well worth the wait. - Eric Guido, Vinous 

17/20 - Lightish brick ruby. Lively, perfumed with sour cherry. So fragrant and open. Sweet tobacco and herbs. Light and juicy on the palate but intense and persistent. The tannins are super-fine and infused by the aromatic fruit. Pretty and finely dry on the finish. - Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com

96/100 - Very pretty ripe and dried fruit with blackberries and sweet cherries. It’s full-bodied with depth of fruit and creamy, polished tannins. Extremely compact and long. Pure fruit at the end. A gorgeous wine. Drinkable now, but better after 2022. - James Suckling