Argiano Brunello di Montalcino 2016

Few estates in Montalcino carry the weight of history quite like Argiano. Founded in 1580 by the Pecci family of Siena, who built the estate's grand villa and vast cellars, it became one of the founding members of the Consorzio del Brunello di Montalcino in 1967 — present at the creation of the appellation itself. The estate sits on the southwestern slope of Montalcino at around 300 metres, catching cooling airflow off the Tyrrhenian Sea just 50 kilometres away, on ancient calcareous marl soils laid down some 25 million years ago when the ocean that once covered this region receded. After decades in the powerful, heavily extracted style favoured during the Parker era, Argiano changed course dramatically following its 2013 acquisition by Brazilian financier André Esteves: under CEO and winemaker Bernardino Sani, working alongside consulting enologist Alberto Antonini, the estate pivoted back toward a more traditional, terroir-driven expression of Sangiovese — organic farming, deep soil mapping, and a renewed focus on elegance over sheer power. The payoff came in 2023, when Wine Spectator named the 2018 vintage its Wine of the Year, the highest honour in the publication's Top 100.

The result is Brunello of real finesse: classic Sangiovese cherry and plum sit alongside dried herbs, leather, and a distinctive mineral, balsamic edge drawn straight from the estate's marl-rich ground, with the kind of structured, ageworthy backbone that has always defined the great wines of this corner of Montalcino. It's a wine built for patience — decant it generously if drinking young, or better still, let a few years in the cellar bring out its full complexity.