The 2001 Brunello di Montalcino is a deeply colored, big, powerful effort. It shows masses of vibrant sweet dark fruit, smoke, tar and earth flavors with notable concentration and length on the palate. Still quite primary today, it offers outstanding potential, but a few years of patience are required. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2018. A Marc de Grazia Selection, various American importers, including Michael Skurnik, Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300, Vin Divino, Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 334-6700, and Estate Wines, Ltd., San Rafael, CA; tel. (415) 492-9411

Deep red-ruby. Multifaceted nose offers currant, coffee, flowers, tobacco, licorice and animal fur, along with an elegant mineral quality. Sweet, lush, and broad, but with firm acids giving the wine an impossibly light touch. Conveys an almost saline sense of extract. Wonderfully broad, dry and long on the finish, with suave tannins and captivating nuances of leather, tobacco, leather, earth and minerals.

There’s a tutti-frutti glossiness to this wine that helps liven understated aromas such as light coffee, rose pedal, white cherry, cinnamon and violet. Well-structured and constructed with tight, sour tannins on the end. ——W.E.(4/1/2006)—— 88