Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona Brunello di Montalcino 2021 750ml

This delicious, bold red offers inviting aromas of fragrant blue flowers, spiced plum, forest floor and pipe tobacco. Full and enveloping in feel, it delivers a great depth of juicy black cherry, black raspberry, licorice and baking spice flavors framed in velvety tannins. Drink 2025–2032. (Kerin O’Keefe)

A profound wine with vibrancy and complexity, exuding restrained cherries and raspberries, together with touches of ash and fresh orange peel. Leafiness and meaty minerality add an extra dimension. The attack is lush and ripe, with full body, velvety tannins, refreshing acidity and violet-soaked cherries to finish. Real precision here. Drinkable now, but best after 2025.

A profound wine with vibrancy and complexity, exuding restrained cherries and raspberries, together with touches of ash and fresh orange peel. Leafiness and meaty minerality add an extra dimension. The attack is lush and ripe, with full body, velvety tannins, refreshing acidity and violet-soaked cherries to finish. Real precision here. Drinkable now, but best after 2025."

There’s no mistaking this wine for anything but Brunello. The Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona 2019 Brunello di Montalcino shows beautiful continuity, crescendoing on the nose and palate in synchronicity. There are aromas of grilled watermelon, red cherry, garden herb and violet, and there is a charred note that recalls the toasted oak. The bouquet balances out beautifully, but you do get considerably more power on the palate thanks to the oomph of 15% alcohol and young tannins that get under your gums. Give this wine a few more years of bottle age. Production is 66,915 bottles in addition to 4,500 smaller formats. (Monica Larner)

Sour cherries with stone and bark undertones to the aromas. Medium body, firm tannins and a long, linear finish that ends tight. But this will soften with some age. Subtle bark and dried mushroom character at the end. Drink after 2025, but already pretty. (James Suckling)

The 2021 Brunello di Montalcino is bright, punchy and loaded with energy. Balsamic-laced black cherry, autumnal spice, dark chocolate and a lift of mint all burst from the glass. Seamless textures of pure silk reveal decadent red fruits swirl and a core of vibrant acidity. A coating of sweet tannins frames the 2021 as nuances of plum and orange zest slowly fade. This is already a pleasure to taste today but has the balance for a long and fruitful evolution.

This is a site I love, as it offers one of the grandest sunsets in Montalcino, and that sense of late-afternoon warmth seems to translate directly into the wine. The Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona 2021 Brunello di Montalcino shows sweet fruit and darker aromas that evoke sun-drenched slopes and fading light. There is warmth and sweetness here that flesh out over the palate, giving the wine notable volume, a hallmark of the estate’s vineyards on the southern side of the appellation. You could almost fault this wine for being too ripe, but that same sunshine-driven character defines its appeal, with alcohol reaching 15%. Production is 72,900 bottles, including alternative formats.

The 2020 Brunello Di Montalcino pours a bright red/orange-tinged color and is ripe and sapid on the nose with notes of crushed black raspberries, mocha, sweet herbs, and mossy, floral earth. It's elegant on the palate, with salty, mouthwatering accents, but the acidity is not what kicks that forward. It's ripe with plush, velvety tannins, hints of porcini, and earth tones that are sure to improve and build as the wine ages. It has a hearty texture in its medium frame and fills the palate with hints of black truffle. Drink over the coming 15 or more years.

Dusky cherry and plum flavors are the main themes in this red, with accents of leather, spices and wild herbs. Lively and focused, with excellent harmony and a sequel of ripe cherry on the lingering finish. Best from 2026 through 2042. 10,000 cases made, 2,080 cases imported.

Aromas of cedar, berry, mushroom and burnt orange follow through to a full body with medium, chewy tannins and a fluid, flavorful finish. Not overdone. Drink after 2023.

Rich and lively, exuding cherry, plum and blackberry fruit, with accents of earth and underbrush. Harmonious and accessible now, with fine length and a lingering, mineral-tinged finish. Best from 2024 through 2040. 5,750 cases made, 1,050 cases imported. (Bruce Sanderson)

The 2020 Brunello di Montalcino is impossible to ignore, with a burst of crushed plums and black cherries accentuated by sweet herbs, hints of tobacco and wilted violets. It's round and supple with dark red fruits, autumnal spices that swirl throughout and a hint of cocoa that embellishes the close. Despite its depth and concentration, the 2020 maintains energy while coming across as wonderfully refined, leaves fine-grained tannins to resonate beneath an air of lavender and mocha.

The 2020 Brunello di Montalcino is impossible to ignore, with a burst of crushed plums and black cherries accentuated by sweet herbs, hints of tobacco and wilted violets. It's round and supple with dark red fruits, autumnal spices that swirl throughout and a hint of cocoa that embellishes the close. Despite its depth and concentration, the 2020 maintains energy while coming across as wonderfully refined, leaves fine-grained tannins to resonate beneath an air of lavender and mocha."

Generous, layered and rich, the Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona 2017 Brunello di Montalcino shows the generous fruit and deep layering that identifies this vintage. It also delivers a powerful 15% alcohol. This edition (with 69,000 bottles made) shows a bright note of sweet cherry that features strongly both on the bouquet and the palate. The wine shows lots of soft fruit with almond, spice and wild rose. From a hot and dry vintage, this Brunello is probably best suited to a near or medium-term drinking window.