'Red fruit and Spring flowers, licorice, rain-on-stones, blood orange-lifted finish.' Though it seems nearly impossible this is a 2022-dated tasting note on Poggio di Sotto's 2015 Brunello di Montalcino.
‘Impossible’ because this tasting vocabulary is virtually alien to warm vintage Brunello. In a growing season where most wines gasp for freshness, what is one to make of this lithe, chipper creature that greets expectations for chocolate-ripeness with roses and pomegranates?
Poggio has made a habit of such alien-to-its-growing-season expressivity. Early picking and 'infusion-style’ extraction, slow and delicate, lend a textural fineness that looks for comparison outside the region. Most vintages still finish around 13.5%.
This list includes the lavender-scented 2011 that has been seemingly open for business since bottling. Maturer pleasures range from the delicate, almost fragile 2007 to the firmer and more robust 2001. The latter assumes an unusually dramatic stance for this estate yet lands its blow.
Cheers,
Jason
