2021 Patrizia Cencioni Brunello di Montalcino DOCG

Decanter's Michaela Morris just dropped one of the most quotable lines in Brunello this year: she named Patrizia Cencioni an emerging talent to buy "before they become the next icons." That's the kind of tip you act on once—because once the rest of the market catches up, the price won't look like this anymore.

The 2021 vintage is the real headline. Critics across the board are calling it one of the great recent Brunellos. James Suckling told his readers point-blank: "I recommend buying this vintage. I prefer it to more recent ones, including 2018, 2019 and 2020." He compared the 2021s to legendary balanced years like 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2004. Wine Spectator's Bruce Sanderson called it a vintage of "unquestionable quality." Decanter rated it 4.5 out of 5 stars. Berry Bros. & Rudd's Italy buyer said the 2021s "sit alongside other iconic Tuscan vintages like 2004, '10, '16 and '19." This is the vintage you cellar.

Patrizia Cencioni's story is its own reason to pay attention. She was one of the first female winemakers in Montalcino—at a time when her own family told her Brunello "wasn't women's work." In 1989 she bought a crumbling property on the eastern flank of the Montalcino hill and built the estate from the ground up. Today she runs it alongside her two daughters, Annalisa and Ariana. The estate spans 50 hectares with eight planted to Brunello, sitting on classic Montalcino soils of galestro clay and friable volcanic rock at elevations that catch cooling winds.

Hand-harvested, fermented on indigenous yeasts, and aged 36 months in a mix of large French and Slavonian oak casks (26, 42, and 7.5 hl). The result at this price is rare: a Brunello with the structural backbone to age twenty years and the kind of polish and elegance that usually costs twice as much. Drink one now with a steak. Lay the rest down. Thank yourself in 2035.