BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO

2016 Padelletti

EN PRIMEUR

Sitting just below the town of Montalcino, Padelletti's six hectares are northeast-facing on clay soil rich in sandstone and limestone. The estate offers elegant yet profound wines epitomised by the 2016 vintage. It opens gradually with scents of violet, lilac, truffle and liquorice. Midweight and fluid, with finessed but firm tannins and brisk acidity, this finishes long with savoury tea notes. A magnificent reminder that Brunello doesn’t need to be a powerhouse to be ageworthy. (Decanter Platinum) Drinking range: 2024 - 2038 Rating: 97 Michaela Morris, Decanter (Apr 2021)

* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.

Fermentation takes place in concrete tanks and the total time of skin contact was 24 days. Aged in large Slavonian and French oak casks.
Mid ruby with the beginning of orange tinges. Lifted raspberry and cherry nose with minerally, earthy hints. Sappy, fresh, crushed berry and cherry palate with real energy and fine, coating tannins. Nervy and rich at the same time.
Drinking range: 2022 - 2038 Rating: 17.5/20 Walter Speller, www.jancisrobinson.com (Mar 2021)

The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino is fresh with a perfume of rose petal, poppy red fruits, and Mediterranean herbs. Its energy is immediately apparent and follows through seamlessly with a tension-driven finish. I love this wine for its transparency, freshness, and lift. Drink 2022-2042. Drinking range: 2022 - 2042 Rating: 95 Audrey Frick, JebDunnuck.com (Mar 2021)

The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino comes to life in the glass, showcasing a classic bouquet of wild strawberries laced with smoky minerals and spice, before evolving further with notes of cedar box and dusty dried earth. It’s a model of purity, hosting soft textures over a feminine framework of brisk acids and salty minerals, with tart red fruits contrasted by sour citrus. Violet-tinged florals form along with a hint of plum and licorice, as fine tannins slowly dry out the expression. Readers in search of traditionally-styled yet wonderfully refined and age-worthy Brunello owe it to themselves to seek out the 2016 Padelletti. Drinking range: 2026 - Rating: 95 Eric Guido, www.vinous.com (Nov 2020)

Extremely opulent and intense aromas of flowers, cherries and plums with some walnut and cedar. Full-bodied and very tight with super refined, polished tannins and a long, long finish. Love the berry, cherry and dried-flower undertones. Really classic style. Best ever. Drink after 2025. Drinking range: 2025 - Rating: 95 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Nov 2020)

The Padellettis are one of Montalcino's oldest families, and one with an illustrious past, stretching back into the 13th century at least. In 1529, Giovanni Padelletti, an architect, was given charge of a section of wall and two gates for the defence of the city against the Spanish invaders, and his descendants still own them. Under the Medicis they had to lie low, but by 1576 they are again listed as owning land and vineyards.

Over the centuries the quality of the wines of the area was improving. White grapes, commonly vinified with the red to make the wines drinkable younger, were excluded, and the best wines were aged in barrels made of oak imported from elsewhere, which did not make the wines as tannic as the local chestnut. It was over this time that the wine became known as Brunello, from the tawny-edged colour it took on from long oak-ageing.

The family had a rough time of it in the nineteenth century, many dying young, including Guido, a professor of three universities who died at thirty-five while fighting with Garibaldi, and his brother Dino. However, thanks to the stewardship of his great-uncle Domenico, Guido's son Carlo Augusto inherited a large estate in fine condition.

Carlo Augusto was one of those people you'd like to have met. With four doctorates to his name, he was a diplomat, a judge, a physician as well as being a remarkable industrialist. He by-passed the age of steam to bring electrical power to the region, with internal combustion generators powered by waste from forestry. By 1899 he had lit Montalcino with electricity, and this was followed by electric flour and saw mills, an olive press, and a brick kiln. He built a paper and book-binding industry, and eventually a cinema.

All this time Brunello was produced in tiny volumes, and it became clear that it was the alluvial soils at the foot of the Montalcino hill which produced the best wine. The Padellettis always had vines in the Rigaccini estate, a valley on the north side of the city which slopes down the east side of the fortress, with a soil enriched by volcanic debris from Monte Amiata. From this six hectares they select less than a quarter of the grapes for Brunello, a production of 7-8000 bottles. The wine is fermented in cement tanks and aged in large Slavonian oak casks, in the original cellar in central Montalcino, in Via Guido e Dino Padelletti, under the family's historic house.

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Wines bought en primeur are scheduled to arrive in the UK over the course of the next eighteen months. If you do not wish to take home delivery, you may wish to consider where you would like the wines shipped on arrival in the UK. Lea & Sandeman offers duty paid and in bond storage through a dedicated storage company called Elephant Storage. For more details on the terms and fees associated with storage please go to our Storage Homepage or contact our primeurs team for more information.

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2023 LATEST ITALIAN RELEASES OFFER FAQ

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