2016 Cerbaiona (Molinari) Brunello di Montalcino

Community Tasting Notes (6) Avg Score: 94.4 points

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  3/25/2023 - SineQuaNon Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Really excellent showing! Bright, beautiful nose and a satisfying palate with ultra soft tannins.

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  10/19/2022 - Robmcl920 Likes this wine: 93 Points

  The '16 Cerbaiona is a very elegant and refined young wine. It is perfumed, sweet, and shows great finesse in terms of texture. However, I don't see a lot of complexity in the wine, at least at this stage, so I am not sure how well it will develop.
  
  The aromatics are nicely perfumed with sweet dark red berry fruits, fresh red roses, fresh mint, savory herbal tones like sage, and a hint of licorice, smoke, and wood spice.
  
  On the palate, the '16 is medium in body with an almost creamy texture, with the tannins being quite subdued and fine grained. I found the palate more closed off than the nose, but it showed beautiful sweet dark red berry fruit and at times a touch of blue-toned fruits, sweet fresh flowers, sweet spices, and minerality along with fresh floral tones on the finish. Everything there is very good, but there's also not a lot of complexity at this point. While the wine had a nice sweetness, I'm not getting anything particularly interesting on the palate in terms of depth or energy.
  
  It'll be interesting to see how this one ages. I like the sweetness and the finesse. I don't drink a lot of Sangiovese, but this strikes me as very much on the elegant side for Brunello. The question is whether there's sufficient depth / complexity that will be unlocked over time to turn this into a great wine. Compared to the 2010 Cerbaiona - the only other wine from this estate I've tasted - the '16 showed a much redder fruit tone, and was definitely a cleaner wine, with none of the leathery notes that I got out of the 2010. This makes sense given the direction that the new owner has taken.

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  8/20/2022 - jviz wrote: 98 Points

  Oh man.. I’ll just lead with it, this is a (not so) poor man’s Monfortino. Serve it blind and you will get near unanimous guesses of high quality nebbiolo. And as such, it’s unlike any Sangiovese I’ve ever had before. It’s a truly fabulous, world class wine.
  
  Bursting out of the glass with shoe polish, violet florals, and tar, moving into bing to black cherry tones on the palate, this wine has aromatic openness and complexity for days. Furthermore, the polished, fine grain tannins make it easy to enjoy now or in 20 years. Outstanding.

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  3/31/2022 - KPB wrote: 97 Points

  A gorgeous wine, the 2016 Cerbaiona exudes class and refinement, offering a fascinating interplay of terroir and deft winemaking. The nose centers on red currents and pomegranate, subtle spices and barest hints of praline. In the mouth the fruit is ripe without being at all overripe, framed by gentle acidity and soft tannins, Nothing overdone here: the nose is exuberant without feeling clumsy, the palate shows a taut balance, without seeming at all heavy or fruity, and the endless finish reveals layers of minerality without seeming saline. Bravo!
  
  The winemaker prefers that his wines not be given numerical scores, but it is my habit to score wines to remind myself of my response to the wine. Right now, 97 if you give this ample time to breath (in my case, 12 hours in decanter). With less air the wine may be a bit closed. Down the road, could easily attain 98 or perhaps even 99 at peak, which I believe will be around age 12-15.

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  4/28/2021 - axisx Likes this wine: 95 Points

  95+. The most aromatically stimulating young Brunellos that I tasted, but needs a lot of air in glass to reveal its beauty. Influence of oak is obvious but truly savoir faire. Tannins are very tight yet fine. Built to blossom into a great wine.

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