Eredi Fuligni 2018 Brunello di Montalcino 750ml

James Suckling ranked Eredi Fuligni the number one producer of Brunello di Montalcino in a Wine Spectator feature titled "America loves Brunello." It was not a controversial ranking. It was simply the consensus of everyone who had paid serious attention to the producer for long enough. Wine Spectator's own Top 10 Montalcino producers list has placed Fuligni at the summit. Robert Parker described the estate as the source of "Brunello on the absolute short list." And yet the wines remain, relative to their quality, among the most accessibly priced seriously credentialed Brunellos available anywhere in the global fine wine market.

The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino is the most significant standard Fuligni bottling in recent memory — not for the vintage alone, but for a specific production decision that makes this wine considerably more extraordinary than even the estate's own exceptional quality standard. In 2018, the Fuligni family decided not to produce a Riserva. That decision — made after careful evaluation of the vintage's character — means that every single Sangiovese grape the estate considered worthy of the Riserva program went instead into this bottle. The finest clusters from San Giovanni, Il Piano, Ginestreto, and La Bandita — four vineyards between 380 and 450 metres on the cool northeastern side of the Montalcino appellation — all of them here. No second selection. No Riserva redirect. This is the standard Brunello containing the estate's full quality hierarchy.

The result was recognized immediately. Falstaff awarded 97 Points. Decanter awarded 96 Points. Wine Spectator awarded 95 Points. Robert Parker awarded 95 Points. Gambero Rosso awarded Tre Bicchieri — the highest recognition in Italy's most authoritative wine guide. Bibenda awarded Cinque Grappoli. The Parker note describes "smooth integration of aromas, carefully balanced intensity, wild fruit, cassis, crushed stone, candied orange, fresh herbs, rosemary, rose, iris root — tannins very well managed and silky." For 35,000 bottles, this is as strong a critical consensus as Brunello di Montalcino produces at any production level.

Origins & Craftsmanship

Eredi Fuligni — the Fuligni heirs — has farmed vineyards on the cool northeastern side of the Montalcino appellation since the 1970s, establishing under Roberto Guerrini's management a philosophy that has remained consistent across four decades: extremely low yields, multiple sorting passes at harvest to ensure only perfectly ripe individual clusters are selected, no compromises in difficult years (the estate has famously declined to produce Brunello in vintages that did not meet its standards), and a winemaking approach that prioritizes the transparency of the Galestro and Alberese soils' mineral character over any particular stylistic ambition.

The estate's four vineyards — San Giovanni, Il Piano, Ginestreto, and La Bandita — are planted between 380 and 450 metres above sea level on the northeastern slope of the Montalcino hill. The northeastern exposure is critically important: it is the coolest sector of the appellation, where the diurnal temperature swings between warm days and cool nights are most pronounced, and where the Sangiovese Grosso ripens more slowly and more completely than on the sun-drenched southern and western slopes. The result is Brunello of unusual aromatic delicacy, floral elegance, and structural finesse — a style that critics consistently describe with the same vocabulary: fine, nuanced, silky, precise. Vine density is a deliberate quality tool: 3,300 to 5,000 vines per hectare, with a maximum production of one bottle per vine plant.

The 2018 vintage follows a four-year DOCG maturation program: stainless steel fermentation in temperature-controlled vats of maximum 60 hectoliters, extended skin contact before malolactic fermentation, then 36 months of aging in a combination of large older barrels and smaller barriques — a two-vessel program that develops the wine's aromatic complexity and structural integration more gently than a pure large-barrel program or pure small-barrel program would achieve. Eighteen months of bottle aging follows before release. The critical decision not to produce a 2018 Riserva redirected every barrel the estate deemed exceptional — typically reserved for the Riserva program — into the standard 35,000-bottle production, producing what Dutch importer Grandcruwijnen described as "an already excellent wine made even more amazing."

Critics Reviews

Falstaff Magazine — 97 Points (2018)

Decanter Magazine — 96 Points (2018)

Wine Spectator — 95 Points (2018)

Robert Parker / Wine Advocate — 95 Points (2018) "The Fuligni 2018 Brunello di Montalcino stands out for its smooth integration of aromas and the carefully balanced intensity achieved here, which shows momentum but also remains very fine and nuanced. There are many sides to the bouquet with wild fruit, cassis, crushed stone, candied orange and fresh herbs or rosemary. A floral note also appears that suggests rose or iris root. The tannins are very well managed and silky. You hardly feel them, yet the wine offers firm structure throughout. This is a production of 35,000 bottles and one I am happy to recommend."

James Suckling — 94 Points (2018) "A wonderful energy seams through the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino, with layered aromas of cherry licorice, leather, spice box, and dried flowers. Medium-bodied, with vibrant tension driving the wine forward through its linear profile, it has fine tannins, with a refreshing edge."

Gambero Rosso — Tre Bicchieri 2024 (highest recognition in Italy's premier wine guide)

Bibenda — Cinque Grappoli 2024 (highest recognition — Italian wine guide)

James Suckling (Wine Spectator, 2005) — ranked Eredi Fuligni #1 producer of Brunello di Montalcino

Tasting Profile

Nose Garnet with brick-ruby tones — the cool northeastern Montalcino terroir's naturally elegant color expression at full maturity. The nose is the most immediately distinguished quality of this wine: smooth, nuanced, and multi-layered in a way that the Robert Parker note captures most specifically. Wild fruit leads — cherry and raspberry with a slightly wild, slightly mineral freshness that is the northeastern Montalcino's most characteristic and most beautiful aromatic quality. Cassis adds darker fruit depth alongside crushed stone — the Galestro and Alberese soils' most direct aromatic contribution, cool and slightly mineral. Candied orange adds a slightly exotic, slightly sweet citrus dimension. Fresh herbs and rosemary weave through the fruit — savory, Mediterranean, and entirely of the Montalcino hillside. A floral note of rose and iris root emerges with air — delicate, perfumed, and entirely characteristic of the Fuligni estate's northeastern altitude and cool exposure. The 2018 vintage's specifically linear energy — James Suckling's "vibrant tension" — is present as a structural quality beneath the aromatic richness: this nose is fine and nuanced, never heavy or extracted.

Palate Medium-bodied, linear, and tensile — the vibrant tension that Suckling identified most precisely confirmed from the first sip as the 2018's most specific stylistic quality. The fine tannins arrive almost imperceptibly — present and building with each sip, providing the firm structure that will sustain this wine through decades of development, but managed and silky in a way that the Parker note's "you hardly feel them, yet the wine offers firm structure" perfectly captures. Wild cherry and red fruits carry the palate's fruit dimension with the precision and freshness of a cool-climate northeastern Montalcino harvest. Cassis and dark fruit add depth through the mid-palate alongside the savory herb and mineral quality from the multiple vineyard sources. The leather, spice box, and dried flowers that Suckling identified add secondary aromatic complexity. Blackcurrant, graphite, and violets thread through alongside crushed stone mineral. The vibrant energy — the linear, forward momentum that characterizes the 2018 across every review — is most apparent in the palate's progression from fruit to structure: the wine builds rather than simply arriving, each sip revealing more structural detail than the previous.

Finish Long, tensile, and floral-mineral in character. Cherry licorice from the Suckling note persists alongside the crushed stone mineral quality of the northeastern vineyards. The fine tannins' dusty, slightly chalky presence extends the close without gripping. Rosemary and a whisper of dried flowers add the savory herbal dimension at the very end. The refreshing edge that Suckling identified carries through to the close as the finish's most specifically Fuligni quality — cool, slightly mineral, and deeply satisfying. This wine is genuinely young and genuinely age-worthy: the structure confirmed by the finest palates in wine criticism points to decades of further development.

Quick Overview

Serving & Occasion

Serve at 17–18°C in a large Burgundy-style bowl. Decanting 60–90 minutes is essential — the fine, linear structure of the 2018 Fuligni opens considerably with air, and the full aromatic complexity of the wild cherry, cassis, rosemary, and iris root character reveals itself progressively. The wine is drinking beautifully now with patient decanting, though the vibrant tension and firm fine-grained tannins confirm that this wine will continue to develop through 2040 and beyond — making it an outstanding cellar candidate alongside an accessible current drinking experience. Outstanding alongside Bistecca alla Fiorentina, braised wild boar, lamb with rosemary, pappardelle with Chianina ragù, aged Pecorino Toscano, and any Tuscan preparation where the wine's wild fruit, mineral, and herbal character finds its most natural companion.