2006 BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO Fuligni

Sweet flowers, with blueberries and blackberries on the nose. Toffee and creme brulee. So complex and subtle with everything there. Full and very velvety with soft and silky tannins and a long, long finish. Beautiful polish to this wine. Best after 2013.   96/100

Mid ruby. Not much development. Fairly light nose (it was bottled only two months ago), some fruit sweetness. But on the palate it really comes into its own and spreads across the palate. An attractive light dustiness. Very firm and fine. Long. Very juicy. Light grainy tannins on the finish. This should develop well.   17.5

Just starting to evolve into a drinking window of 10 years plus, this is an immensely seductive Tuscan red made from pure Sangiovese (as Montalcino requires for Brunello) displaying delicately smoky, herby aromas that combine with the lightest touch of spicy oak. On the palate there's suave-textured, complex dark red berry fruits and the suggestion of a gamy, mouthwateringly savoury future to come   94/100

Fuligni’s 2006 Brunello di Montalcino is one of the stars of the vintage. Sweet floral notes weave through a core of expressive red fruit as the wine opens up in the glass. The 2006 shows incredible purity and finesse, most notably in its silky, polished tannins. This isn’t a blockbuster, but rather a wine that conquers through its sheer finesse. The wine spent 27 days on the skins. The volume and weight are influenced by the modern school, everything else is traditional all the way. The 2006 is the first vintage in which the percentage of French oak has been dropped to 25%, which has allowed the purity of the fruit to shine through to a degree that I have seldom, if ever, seen here. Rain during June naturally lowered yields and may partly explain why Fuligni’s 2006 is so phenomenal. Simply put, readers won’t want to miss this superb Brunello. Anticipated maturity: 2016-2031.   96/100