2016 - Brunello di Montalcino Casaccia, Canalicchio di Sopra

Lifting up with gorgeous floral perfumes and hints of white smoke, the 2016 Brunello di Montalcino La Casaccia from Canalicchio di Sopra keeps you at the edge of your glass. It opens up with a dark and dramatic display of balsamic-tinged black cherry, sage and Indian spice, contrasted by savory notes of tobacco, rich earth tones and flowery undergrowth. There’s an amazing density of fruit here, offset by salty minerals, zesty acids and a hint of sour citrus. The textures are velvety-smooth, yet the expression remains feminine and lifted. In fact, you can hardly notice its underlying tannic heft until it’s too late, as the 2016 La Casaccia seems to youthfully fold in on itself, halting the expression but promising over a decade of further development.

This is a newish single-vineyard wine (it's the second vintage) created by Francesco Ripaccioli and the team at Canalicchio di Sopra at the conclusion of an ambitious estate-wide mapping project. The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino La Casaccia draws its fruit from a two-hectare site planted in 1990 with clay soils and rich in mineral components. A precious 4,133 bottles were made. What I like most is the tightness of the fruit, which you chip away at slowly as the wine softens and yields in the glass. Each layer brings you forest fruit, sour cherry, almond, lilac and candied orange peel. On a second swirl, you might get black olive, bay leaf and scorched earth. There are subtle mineral notes, but what La Casaccia ultimately offers is that uniquely compact and extremely polished quality of fruit.

Lustrous mid ruby. Leafy cherry hints but otherwise quite closed on the nose, yet with a clear sense of purity. Dense, yet elegant and with tangy acidity shooting through the mouth-filling fruit. Firm noble tannins add depth and contour. Real cru pedigree. (WS)