This has wonderfully pure fruit aromas, such as peaches, Asian pears and golden apples, alongside lemon curd, gingerbread, chalk and jasmine. Rock salt and oyster shells follow on the palate, which is so seamless that you scarcely notice the super-fine bubbles. It’s concentrated yet gentle at the same time, with impressive resolution and integration of all components. Salty and creamy at the very-long finish. Fantastic! 58% pinot noir and 42% chardonnay. Drink or hold.

Juicy and bright, with engaging raspberry and boysenberry pâte de fruit notes inlaid with licorice snap and fruitcake. Shows a good low hum of energy throughout. Drink now through 2030.

Pure, fresh and nicely polished, with black cherry and plum compote notes mixed with cocoa, graphite and black licorice. There's a flash of violet on the finish, with good, steady grip in the background. Best from 2030 through 2045.

The single vineyard bottling of Campo del Drago from Castiglion del Bosco comes from a high elevation parcel of their Brunello vineyards. It was first bottled on its own in the 1999 vintage. Because of the higher elevation, this wine comes in just a touch lower in octane than the 2020 117 Normale, tipping the scales at fourteen percent octane. It is handled identically in the cellars to the regular bottling, with fermentation done with indigenous yeasts and aging done in twenty percent new oak. The 2020 Campo del Drago delivers a superb aromatic constellation of red and black cherries, plums, brown spices, Cuban cigars, a mineral-infused base of soil, incipient notes of nutskin and a delicate framing of new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a stunning core of fruit, great mineral undertow, fine-grained tannins and impeccable balance on the long, seamless, complex and beautifully vibrant finish. Simply outstanding juice in the making and one of the best young Brunellos I have tasted in quite some time! 2037-2075+. 

Castiglion del Bosco’s 2020 Brunello di Montalcino normale is an outstanding young wine. The wine comes in at 14.5 percent octane in this vintage and was raised in its customary twenty percent new oak. It offers up a deep and beautifully sappy bouquet of plums, black cherries, cigar wrapper, a lovely foundation of soil tones, gentle Tuscan herb tones, woodsmoke and a deft framing of cedary oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a fine core of fruit, excellent soil signature and grip, ripe, buried tannins and excellent balance on the long and complex finish. This is excellent young Brunello! 2035-2075+.