2018 Le Ragnaie Brunello di Montal Casanovina Montosoli

95 POINTS

Monica Larner - Wine Advocate

One of three single-vineyard wines released by Le Ragnaie, the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino Casanovina Montosoli reveals fresh and saturated fruit flavors of dark cherry, pressed blueberry and mild spice. You feel the soft richness of ripe fruit. You also feel a distinctive mineral signature with chalky crushed stone that adds to the dryness and powdery tannins of this wine. Despite all that, there is a lingering sweet cherry note on the close. It needs a few more years to flesh out. The wine ages in both cement and large oak botte.

95 POINTS

Michaela Morris - Decanter

To preserve freshness, Riccardo Campinoti bottled all his Brunello a full year earlier than usual and reduced time in wood from 36 to 30 months. Nevertheless, Casanovina is even more closed than when I tried it a year ago, right after bottling. Of Le Ragnaie’s four new releases, this is the most complete and boasts the ripest, most dignified tannins, although they are still firm. Aromas are redolent of red berries, violet, fennel and lilac. It will need time to reveal its full potential, but for now, crunchy fruit and steely acidity distinguish the mineral-led, energetic palate.

95 POINTS

Danielle Callegari - Wine Enthusiast

A nose that manages to seem both fruit-forward and earthy has cherries, strawberries and raspberries, then herbs and topsoil and finally a hint of graphite. The palate stays buoyant and sanguine with crunchy red berries and iron-rich soil and gets structure from rigid tannins and vibrant acidity.