2018 Pieve Santa Restituta ‘Sugarille’ Brunello di Montalcino

JD96+ The 2018 Brunello Di Montalcino Sugarille is layered with aromas of black licorice, wild raspberry, smoky cedar, and sweet Mediterranean herbs. It is medium to full-bodied with gorgeous concentration and length in its fresh cherry fruit, salty earth, ripe and present tannins, iron-rich earth, and warming spice. As it opens, it reveals layers of leather, fresh pine, and orange peel, and it is exceptionally balanced between its elegance, weightless feel, and noble tension. It needs another couple of years in bottle before hitting its prime drinking 2025-2045.
JS96 Aromas of red plums, sour cherries, spice box, oranges, cloves and capers. Moss and porcini, too. Beautifully open, with a medium to full body and very fine, silky tannins. Lovely purity of fruit here, with a long, seamless finish. Ethereal and transparent. Drink from 2024.
WA95+ Showing extra richness and textural weight, the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino Sugarille is structured, rich and intense. This wine represents fruit from a single site that is characterized by schistous galestro soils. These conditions give Sugarille its heavier center of gravity and its distinguished power and heft. Dark fruit, balsam herb and pencil shavings shape a beautiful and precise bouquet. Give this wine more time to age.
VIN95 The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino Sugarille keeps me coming back to the glass again and again to take in its spicy yet also wonderfully lifted bouquet, as shavings of cedar and pine evolve to reveal mentholated herbs, flinty stone and dried black cherries. This is deeply textural, soothing with its combination of ripe red fruits and juicy acidity, as sweet spices and mint nuances resonate toward the close. The Sugarille doesn’t miss a beat, tapering o! with impeccable balance and regal structure, while allowing remnants of ripe wild berries and plum to linger on and on. The Gaja family has really outdone themselves in this idiosyncratic vintage.