Unique aromas of dried flowers and sandalwood with ripe black cherries. Breathtaking. It’s full bodied yet rather agile and weightless with fine dusty tannins that float across the palate. Wonderfully done for this difficult vintage. Gorgeous and delectable now. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold

Camphor, new leather, pipe tobacco and cedar aromas slowly take shape in the glass along with forest floor notes. Made with organically grown grapes, it's full-bodied and savory, delivering steeped prune, fleshy Morello cherry, baking spice and licorice framed in tightly woven, enveloping tannins. Drink 2024-2029.

Tart cherries, wild strawberries, sage and lifting hints of mint and camphor waft up from the 2017 Brunello di Montalcino Helichrysum. This is savory and mineral in nature, yet also velvety- smooth, ushering in a mix of red and black berries that slowly build tactile tension toward the close. Rounded tannins linger, as residual acids keep the expression unexpectedly fresh. This could use a short stay in the cellar to flesh out a bit, but the balance here is quite impressive. The Helichrysum hails from San Polino's highest-elevation parcel, at 450 meters, where the soils are both clay-rich and volcanic in origin. It spends six months with bâtonnage in barriques, followed by three years in Slavonian oak.

The San Polino 2017 Brunello di Montalcino Helichrysum (with 9,000 bottles made) shows slightly lighter fiber compared to the annata release, and this wine is also more floral, with pressed rose, dried lavender and bay leaf. This more compact style is well suited to this hot and dry vintage that naturally produced a lot of sugar (alcohol) and extract. Farming at San Polino is organic and biodynamic.