2018 Fuligni Brunello di Montalcino Tuscany 750 ml

Fuligni’s Brunello is a reference point—a wine so reliably great you can set your watch to it—and the 2018 is extra special. Lauded with a 98-point score from longtime Wine Enthusiast editor Kerin O’Keefe—who literally wrote the defining book on Brunello—which tied the legendary 2015 edition, it will go into the pantheon as one of the greatest ever from Fuligni, which Antonio Galloni of Vinous called “among the top estates in Montalcino.”

Fuligni’s vineyard site is the secret to their success: Its rocky soils from the Eocene era (roughly 50 million years ago) hold very limited amounts of organic compounds. The scarcity of nutrients makes the vines struggle, and that translates to concentration and density in the glass. 

The land is difficult to work, but lies in “one of the best positions in the appellation,” according to Wine Advocate, and the vines produce handpicked Sangiovese grapes that vastly and reliably overdeliver. However, the vineyard yields only minuscule quantities, and only 12 of Fuligni’s 100 hectares are planted to vines, so demand almost always outpaces supply.

2018 was a vintage that created beautifully open-knit, seductive wines in Brunello, even as it challenged growers to be at their best. The team at Fuligni performed extra canopy management and were rewarded with beautiful grapes. Crucially, there was no Riserva bottled in 2018, so the old-vine fruit that often goes into that bottling forms the backbone of this anything-but-normale—hence the step up in quality here. 

This is a crimson stunner that deserves a place in the cellar of wide-ranging collectors, dyed-in-the-wool devotees of Italian varieties, and all lovers of red wine. It’s an absolute benchmark for the Brunello di Montalcino appellation.