Best ever for Vinous, at $159:
The bouquet on the 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Le Due Porte is simply stunning, wafting up with dusty rose, incense and cloves before giving way to dried strawberries and lavender. This is elegance personified, gliding across the palate with velvety textures while ushering in mineral-laced red berries and violet-tinged inner florals. Though it's structured and geared for the cellar, there's a purity here that mixes with the residual acids to create a remarkably fresh impression, as hints of licorice and sour cherry fade. Now in its second vintage, Le Due Porte, a cru bottling from II Palazzone's highest-elevation vineyard, shows tremendous potential.
This is what truly classic Brunello of the very highest order is all about.
