TN: 2016 Fuligni Brunello di Montalcino

Immediately bright and energetic, with cherry fruits and purple flowers the first things to reveal. It is light on its feet but deep and as the wine draws in air you get darker elements. There’s a wonderful purity here, and supreme balance. It is far from its eventual apogee but you don’t feel like you’ve wasted a bottle this young. Splendid stuff!

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Thanks for the note.
I had the ‘15 a couple of month ago an it was fabulous. The have been making good wine for a while now at Fuligni but I really think they made another step up in quality. I normally don’t drink my Brunello with less than 10 years in the cellar, but based on your note I‘m tempted to open a ‘16!

Thanks Jeremy. I attended a dinner a number of years ago where we drank 8 well regarded Brunellos from teh 2004 vintage and the Fuligni was wine of the night and I have been buying the wines periodically since then.

Big fan of Fuligni, even in not the best vintages. Picked up a half case of the 2013 Brunello after having a bottle at a restaurant. Always rock solid and typically pretty fairly priced though the great press for 2015 and 2016 has it inching up and over the $100 mark. Which, all things considered, is probably still decent QPR for what it is in those vintages.

Yeah, I love this producer, but the prices the last few vintages have been tough for us fans.

I was going to suggest that backfilling may be the play, but it looks like the prices for back vintages have gone up a lot, too.

Brunello has been such a great and underrated source of quality in the $40-60 price range over many years. I wonder how much these new prices reflect the 15 and 16 vintages, or whether this is the start of a new level in Brunello pricing.

I guess most bargains don’t stay bargains forever, eventually people figure them out.

I liked the Fuligini Rosso 2014 (16/20) and the Fuligni Brunello 2012 (16,5/17) in an horizontale gathering the best domains in 2017.

I picked up the 2013 for under $65 a bottle. Seeing $95 for the 2015 and I’m sure it’s the same for 2016, if not slightly higher.

I just found the 2013 at $50/bottle for a half case, is this a must buy?

Yes we had it in Montalcino a few weeks ago. Well worth it at that price. I thought it a touch heavy but it was served too warm so that may have effected my impression.

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Went long on the 2010’s and very glad that I did.

Somewhere online you can share, or local shop?

I really like the '10 too. I had the '15 last night and it was good, but no match the for '15 Salvioni it was paired with.

I don’t think the changes in Fuligni pricing OR the recent hype of '15 and '16 are any indicator of a “new level in Brunello pricing” generally. Yes, pricing in all wine regions continues to rise. However, it is usually just a handful of very specific wines which consistently receive 96+ ratings from multiple critics that see the rapid price increases. In '99 and '01, I was able to purchase Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuova for $33 at my local Costco…But after several years of high scores, it is now $100+ in every vintage.

Several other favorites have seen similar patterns, with many great wines that were $30-$50 now pushing close to $100 (Costanti, Cerbaiona, and Pian dell’Orino come to mind), with others moving in the $69-$79 range (Fuligni, Uccelliera, Le Ragnie, Livio Sassetti, etc.).

However, the region makes a LOT of wine, and there are always under-the-radar, up-and-coming, reasonably priced wines…Le Torre, Lisini and Talenti for example.

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So I think 2017 and 2018 are more decent/good vintages than standout vintages for Montalcino. What do you think pricing will be like? What would Fuligni or CdN Tenuta Nuova cost in those vintages? Does the 2016 price spike mostly hold going forward, or do those come all or most of the way back down to reflect a less spectacular vintage?

I don’t think they will come all of the way down. I think the top vintages set a “market high” for the wine, and lesser vintages from that point forward are sold at a 10%-22% discount from that high. In some cases, retailers will still identify the highest price as their normal pricing, but will simply run sales/promotions.

For example, in earlier great vintages (e.g., '06 and '10), Fuligni would max out at $69, while surrounding lesser (but still decent) vintages could range anywhere from $49.99 all the way up to that maximum price. If the '2016 Fuligni is now $99, I suspect the '17 and '18 will range from ‘discounted’ prices as low as $75 - $89. In a truly weak/poor vintage, perhaps it would even go a bit lower, though I suspect $74.99 may be a

Similarly, I think top vintages of Tenuta Nuova are now about $110 to $120, while I suspect in weaker vintages it will remain just under $100 (i.e. $89-$99).

I’m not sure it’s a must buy, but I thoroughly enjoyed the 1 bottle I’ve had so far and Fuligni is always pretty good stuff. I’d buy a half case at that price.