2004 Cerbaiona Brunello di Montalcino

Bright, saturated dark red. High-pitched, perfumed aromas of crushed raspberry, pungent minerality and rose petal. Silky, suave and refined, with lovely clarity and class to the pure flavors of crushed red berries and flowers. Not as big as the 2001, and more dominated in the early going by treble notes, but this is wonderfully sappy and insinuating wine with a superb rising finish. Its almost liqueur-like red cherry flavor is joined by deeper notes of leather and earth-plus a suggestion of exotic flowers-after extended aeration. A beauty, and now routinely one of the best Brunellos of each new vintage.