The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino La Cerbaiola shows pretty color saturation with shiny highlights of dark garnet and black ruby. The bouquet is punchy and bright, but you also get a good dose of primary fruit with black cherry and dried currant. This is one of only a handful of wines from 2018 that gives confidence in terms of its cellar-aging potential. The tannins still need time to gain polish and softness, and the fresh acidity so beautifully locks those flavors and perfumes in place. The Salvioni family has beat the odds in a challenging vintage. Exactly 9,269 bottles were released.

The 2017 Brunello di Montalcino La Cerbaiola grows in intensity in the glass, with delicate aromas that are especially floral and light in character. Instead of blackberry or blackcurrant, this elegant wine delivers cassis and cranberry. Instead of overt spice, you get licorice, balsam herb and camphor ash. The Salvioni house style is ethereal and light, and although that extra vintage ripeness and concentration does register on the palate, farming and winemaking at this estate puts an emphasis on acidity over power or structure. These choices were particularly important in 2017.

The Salvioni 2016 Brunello di Montalcino La Cerbaiola has some punch and lift to it with aromas of wild rose, cola and forest berry. The wine's personality, and its strict adherence to a classic Sangiovese tradition, is consistent with the house style. What sets the 2016 apart is the depth of the fruit and the pronounced length of the finish, which is driven by structural power, acidic freshness and dryness on the tannins. The wine reveals a deep ruby color with a slightly darker hue and more richness in this vintage, and that extra heft will serve the wine well as it completes its aging trajectory.

After skipping over the 2014 vintage, Salvioni comes out swinging with the 2015 Brunello di Montalcino La Cerbaiola. This is a classic Brunello, with one foot firmly planted in a sense of place and the other in varietal purity. You really can't ask for more in a world-class Brunello such as this, hailing from a highly ranked vintage. Thanks to the sunny and warm growing season, the fiber and texture of this wine is a little looser and thicker compared to the cooler 2013 vintage. This beautiful wine, by contrast, delivers a knockout blow of saturated color loaded with dark cherry and blackberry aromas, all backed by spice, potting soil, crushed rocks, iron ore, ash, violets and blood orange. There is a subtle point of softness or sweetness on the finish that is a signature of this vintage. This champion of a release weighed in at 15,355 bottles.

Tasted from barrel, the 2013 Brunello di Montalcino La Cerbaiola is a fine and delicate expression. The bouquet opens gracefully to show pressed violets, blanched almond, wild spice and crisp forest berry. Like most of Salvioni's wines, this newest release is all about those tiny details. All those miniature components come together to build volume and intensity as the wine settles firmly over the palate. This vintage is slightly more streamlined and thin, yet the polished intensity of the mouthfeel is satisfying and long regardless.