Fuligni Brunello di Montalcino 2021

The Conti Fuligni are a family of ancient Venetian origin with a documented presence stretching back to the 14th century; a branch settled in Tuscany in the 1700s, and in the early 1900s Giovanni Maria Fuligni established himself in Montalcino, turning the family's attention to viticulture. Since his death in 1971, the estate has been headed by his daughter, Maria Flora Fuligni — described by her own importers as "a true woman of wine" — continuing a tradition where women have consistently shaped the family's winemaking. The 100-hectare estate sits on the eastern side of Montalcino, historically considered the source of the most authentic Brunello, with the core vineyards at Cottimelli — 380 to 450 metres, north-east facing, on rocky Eocene marl — planted with vines averaging 25 years old, some over 40, preserving the estate's old Sangiovese clones at lower density than modern plantings typically allow. The wine ages in the family's extraordinary historic cellars: partly beneath a 17th-century palazzo in the heart of Montalcino, in vast old Slavonian oak botti, and partly in the ex-convent cellars at Cottimelli, where Paolo Vagaggini — one of Tuscany's most respected Sangiovese specialists, working with the family since the 1960s — oversees the blend of Slavonian oak and smaller Allier tonneaux. True to the estate's exacting standards, Fuligni skips its regular Brunello entirely in genuinely difficult vintages, refusing to release a compromised wine under the family name.

The result is Brunello of real intensity and distinction: ripe red fruit, tobacco, and warm spice unfold from a long, patient maceration and slow fermentation that builds real depth and concentration, aged a minimum of four years, at least two of those in oak, before release. It's a wine built on classic proportions — structured, aromatic, and genuinely age-worthy, reflecting a family whose relationship with this land now spans well over a century