2016 Brunello Tenuta di Sesta

The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino has aromatics of cherry fruit leather, lavender, and balsamic. The palate is ripe with raspberry coulis, sage, and tomato leaf. It has a well-balanced but present structure of tannin and fresh acidity. Enjoy over the next 15 years, and drink 2022-2036. Tenuta di Sesta is in the southeast of the region near Castelnuovo dell’Abate.

This wine sources its fruit from a moderately high parcel that measures 13 hectares and is perched 400 meters in elevation. The soils here are thin and drain well, with a mix of calcareous and schistous terrain. The Tenuta di Sesta 2016 Brunello di Montalcino is fermented with ambient yeasts in stainless steel and later ages in various-sized botte made with Slavonian oak. This very natural and traditional approach allows for those expressive vintage aromas to shine bright. This 2016 Brunello shows linear fruit with forest berry and wild cherry. You get all of that here with tight tannins, cola and mineral. Some 40,000 bottles were made, and this wine delivers a classic and straightforward interpretation of this terrific vintage.

The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino from Tenuta di Sesta lifts up with a zesty display of tart cherries, incense, spiced orange peels and dusty dried earth tones. It’s silky and soft, complemented by juicy acids and sweet red fruits, taking on notes of licorice, dark chocolate and purple inner florals. This is such a pleasure to taste, as it blends ripeness with nervous tension and grippy tannins to create a truly satisfying yet also youthful and balanced expression. The 2016 Tenuta di Sesta should only require a few years to come into focus, and it will provide a long and open drinking window from there on out.