2016 Brunello di Montalcino Sorgente
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Tasting notes
Here I’m finding a lifted display, both floral and dusty, revealing sweet rose, strawberry, cloves and hints of licorice as the 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Sorgente blossoms in the glass. This is velvety-smooth and elegant in feel, casting blue-tinged ripe berries effortlessly across the palate, as minerals and fine tannins collect toward the close. It tapers off lightly structured, with a note of wild berry preserves and sage lingering long. The 2016 has evolved nicely in bottle, successfully integrating some of the oak that was so prevalent the first time it was tasted.
Critic scores
Average Score
Walter Speller, jancisrobinson.com
Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
Healthy, mid ruby. Sweet oak with hints of coconut layering the fruit. It's a bit like being back in the 1990s. Sweet, minty and oaky fruit. This has clearly seen too much oak, but the fruit quality is so high it still manages to convey energy. Juicy finish with grainy tannins, but overall a questionable decision to force this vintage into an oak straitjacket. (WS)
Sorgente is enjoying its post-graduation phase that took it from Rosso status to Brunello under the estate's new owners Felix and Sabine Eichbauer. It remains the lowest-priced Brunello of the three and is the wine with the most open and accessible fruit. The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Sorgente (with a mere 2,456 bottles made) is dark and fruit-driven, but it also shows a high degree of oak that is very apparent, especially during this early tasting. Boasting a new gravity winery, the grapes are fermented in steel and later aged in large botti. Sorgente is a two-hectare parcel located at a breezy 450 meters above sea level.
The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Sorgente shows floral-laced sweet cherries with hints of sage, autumnal spices and cedar box. It’s soft in texture, almost fleshy at times, with balsamic-tinged strawberries and juicy acids which maintain energy throughout. A light coating of rounded tannins lingers, making for a slightly chewy finale with echoes of licorice, brown butter and rosy inner florals. The Sorgente comes across as much richer and more wood-influenced in 2016.