92 Monica Larner - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The Castello Banfi 2017 Brunello di Montalcino relies on fruit freshness and varietal purity to show a classic side of this hot and dry vintage. The wine remains elegant and bright throughout with plenty of primary fruit, cherry and dried raspberry. It shows a clean, linear style with rosemary, blue flower and some green olive or wild fennel. This is a handy, near-term drinking wine with a hefty 15% alcohol that can be absorbed with a hearty pasta or lasagna. Production is impressive with 450,000 bottles.