Paganico, Brunello di Montalcino

Tight cork came out clean, no sediment. Decanted two hours. Garnet. Mildly reduced. Nose and palate are both really reticent, with some tight red fruit and leather. Short finish with silty tannins. NR from me. I don't know this maker, but it tastes like a textbook dumb phase from a traditional house; it's also possible it's just not a great wine and this is all it's got. 2012 was a warm year in Montalcino so you'd think it would be …

Garnet with shades of purple. Dried flowers, herbs, on the nose. Powerful mouthfeel. Full body, strong acidity, and tight tannins. Cherry, dried flowers, red berries, thyme, and other herbs.Finishes long and fruity. Good solid wine

Good but not great. Got significantly better as it opened up. First tried after decanting less than 1 hour and was a bit rough, smoothed out after a few hours.

Corked

The expect depth and lingering palate is missing. A hint of fruit tries to express itself at the start but immediately disappears. A superficial attempt to represent a brunello

Decanted 3 hours before tasting, improved substantially with even more time, but never quite achieved greatness. Dark, clear purple in the glass. Nose of plum, leather, pine, black pepper. Dark, dry, and fairly structured on the palate, deep black fruit, forest floor, spice. Long finish, with plenty of silty tannins. Brunellos are usually super food friendly; this was best on its own immediately after dinner, but once again seemed too austere another hour later. Very good if you're willing to …

Sure needs time to open but then drinks very nicely.

- Garnet color with medium forming legs and aromas of blackberry, raspberry, black currant, cherry and medicinal. It's balanced and has flavours of raspberry, cherry, licorice anise and cedar with a medium/full body. Round texture with a medium finish - This wine is drinking wonderfully right now. I tasted before decanting and decided not to decant. Very slight bricking around the edges. Great nose of cedar, very slight iodine ( which I love). Flavors of cigar box, dark ripe berries. …

- Purple color and aromas of cedar and cherry. It's somewhat balanced and has flavours of cedar, raspberry and black currant with a medium/full body. Round texture with a medium finish - Had with spaghetti. Needed at least a one hour decant to open up.

- Garnet color and aromas of oak, cedar and licorice anise. It's balanced and has flavours of cedar, oak, vanilla, raspberry and cherry with a medium/full body. Round texture - Had with spaghetti and homemade meatballs and sauce. Decanted for three hours. Wonderful cedar notes on the nose and palate in addition to ripe dark fruit. Much better than my first experience with this wine due to the long decant, I believe.

- Garnet color and aromas of cedar. It's somewhat balanced and has flavours of cedar with a medium/full body. Round texture with a medium finish - Had with spaghetti and homemade meatballs. Plum and cedar on the nose and palate. Very nice wine and I will buy more.

- Ruby color with medium forming legs. It's balanced with a medium/full body. Leathery texture - This was a very nice bottle of wine. It needs an hour of air to round and bring out all the really nice Sangiovese favors. We had it with spaghetti and garlic bread. The spaghetti was well spiced with Italian herbs. I am sure I'll buy more of this.

Solid. Nothing special

Dark ruby color. Blackcurrant, cherry, plumb nose. I did not get much flavor on the palate. Mostly a lot of mouth puckering acidic tannin that suppressed the fruit flavor. I've got to believe it was either too young, too cold, or had seen some heat along the line. In any case, not my kind of wine.