98pts Vinous

Brooding and balsamic, the 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Vigna Paganelli is a dark stallion of a wine with a bouquet to meditate to, wafting up exotic spices, flint, incense, dried roses, black cherries and hints of ashen stone. It's racy yet complex and sensual, with silken textures and masses of mineral-inflected red berry fruits, all guided by a core of zesty acidity as a tinge of sour citrus adds tension throughout. Pleasantly chewy yet still mouthwatering, the 2019 leaves a web of fine tannins, along with a hint of orange zest and cloves to linger on and on and on. This is drop-dead gorgeous.

97pts Decanter

Gorgeously perfumed but properly restrained, the 2019 doles out nutmeg, cinnamon, black tea and incense on a persistent backdrop of dried cherry and black plum. Dense and sizeable but deftly balanced in its proportions, it remains effortlessly afloat as it expands assuredly across the palate. Soft, grainy tannins leave the mouth cleansed, yet this needs time, gratifyingly, for all its intricacies to be revealed.

95pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

We haven't seen this Riserva since the 2016 vintage. It starts off with broad richness, and the bouquet fires on all cylinders. It shows tart blackberry and plum with cured tobacco leaf and sweet baking spice. You feel a rich buildup on the palate from what is a naturally concentrated vintage.

94pts James Suckling

This has a concentrated nose of blackberries, licorice and notes of espresso. The palate is medium- to full-bodied with supple tannins and red-fruit flavors complemented by cedar. Elegant Brunello. 

17.5/20 Jancis Robinson

Lustrous mid ruby. Sweet, intense red fruit with top notes of dark spice and a suggestion of cardamom. Unexpectedly fluid on the palate with ripe, tangy raspberry and finely chiselled, gripping tannins. Very long, juicy and perfumed.

Tasting Notes

Intense ruby red, elegant nose with notes of red fruit, leather and spices; persistent, balanced flavour, with a long and seductive finish.

Food Pairings: Red meats, game, accompanied by mushrooms or truffles, mature cheeses.

About the Wine

Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Vigna Paganelli is produced only in the best vintages and in limited quantity.

This wine comes exclusively from "I Paganelli" vineyard, the oldest one in the estate, planted in 1964. Its vines, used as a clonal reference when planting new vineyards, produce high quality grapes which are picked by the individual selection of the best and ripest bunches.

After the manual harvest, the must ferments at controlled temperature. Subsequently the wine spends a long time in large French oak casks and it is then aged in the bottle.

About the Winery

Generation after generation, many resources were spent on research for quality, clonal selections, winemaking and aging techniques, and also by building a modern winery for the standards at that time.

Il Poggione was one of the first wineries to market the Brunello di Montalcino wine as early as the 1900’s, and one of the founding members of the Brunello di Montalcino Consortium.

After more than a Century, Lavinio Franceschi’s work is still a fundamental point of reference for his successors, Leopoldo and Livia, who continue to develop the business with that same dedication and unrelenting passion, combining the ancient skills of winemaking crafts and tradition with the latest, most innovative techniques.

Grape Varietal: 100% Sangiovese