Grandi Annate is a wine that has made a most impressive turnaround. The 2013 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Grandi Annate shows the confidence and the pride of its current incarnation. To my nose, this wine speaks the precise language of the appellation. The bouquet is broad and accessible with Sangiovese-driven tones of dried cherry and moist earth or tobacco. But like many of its peers, the bouquet here is more horizontal if you will instead of being vertical. The tightness of the wine's textual composition is what stands out most and there is a hint of cherry sweetness that adds to the volume and density you feel on the finish.

Cherry and blackberry fruit is tinged by oak spice in this powerful red. A coating of stiff tannins holds this upright, while the fruit, leather and spice notes play out on the finish. Best from 2019 through 2030.

Dark-skinned berry, forest floor, new oak and exotic spice aromas are front and center. The dense palate offers dried black cherry, cranberry, oak, vanilla and coconut framed in tightly knit, fine-grained tannins. Drink 2019-2028.