2016 Le Potazzine Brunello di Montalcino

(96+ point) Le Potazzine always delivers a smooth and silky style with extreme elegance and the lifted cool-climate fruit that you get from this high-altitude growing site. The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino is taut and firm with cherry fruit, dried raspberry, tilled earth, spice and blue flower. The wine sees an extended fermentation of 40 days and ages in botte grande for 42 months. This is a well-balanced wine that is slightly thinner, with one notch lower intensity in this vintage compared to past editions. You get a light, sharp and streamlined style. I prefer the 2015 vintage slightly to this wine, but I'm suggesting a longer drinking window here. This is an 18,000-bottle release that hits the market in January 2021. (ML) (11/2020) Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

100% Sangiovese from two vineyards in Montalcino: ‘Le Prata’ close to Montalcino with SE exposure at 500m above sea level; and ‘La Torre’ in Sant’Angelo in Colle with SW exposure at 420m above sea level. Fermentation and maceration lasts 30 days. The wine then matures for 40 months in large oak cask before finishing in the bottle for 12 months before release. 1500 cases produced annually