Tenuta Oliveto Rosso di Montalcino DOCG 2001

This is an older bottle, obviously, which I opened to serve with a roast pork loin -- I was looking for a red, but not something tremendously substantial, and was curious to see how it had evolved, in part because I have always found Tenuta Oliveto's Brunello to be quite overripe, to the point that it marches to its own drum. What might Tenuta Oliveto's Rosso be like? Put simply, it surprised me:

Deep almandine with black reflections and almandine rim with hints of brown. The bouquet is intense, with mentholated brandied cherries laced with prunes and balsamic accents, savory notes, and leaf tobacco. Mature and fairly elegant. On the palate it's full, with rich brandied cherries laced with prunes, leaf tobacco, and savory balsamic accents that echo the nose (and carry into the finish) and is supported by silky tannins that flow into a clean finish with some underbrush as well as the fore-mentioned balsamic accents. It's graceful, in a rich rather opulent key, and I found it unexpectedly good. A bit too powerful for arista, but good.
90

The vintage certainly helped -- 2001 was very good -- but it showed much better than I expected it to, and it is perhaps time to contact the Tenuta for a Brunello vertical; if could vintages of the Brunello also follow this path they may prove quite interesting.

Tenuta Oliveto's site