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San Filippo

San Filippo makes an impressive statement in 2010. The Brunello Le Lucére is one of the protagonists of the vintage and is a wine that captures a rare side of the Sangiovese grape. It is explosive, powerful and rich. Like the other great wines of the vintage, this Brunello proves the potential of everyone's favorite Tuscan red grape. MONICA LARNER

Roberto Gianelli, owner of the Brunello di Montalcino estate San Filippo, bought this property a few years ago and quickly began making stylish and elegant Brunello's. He has fallen in love with this small, deluxe quality estate with about 2 acres of vineyards in the Brunello appellation. His Le Lucere, a single-vineyard Brunello, shows a unique, almost Burgundian richness and texture. Le Lucere also comes in a Riserva in the top years. JAMES SUCKLING

Watching the evolution of San Filippo's wines over the last few years has been fascinating. In part it is because owner, Roberto Gianelli, is a great person and his enthusiasm and love of the wines from his adopted home (he's from Florence) is contagious but also it is because the wines are now - more and more - bearing the mark of his personal philosophy and preferences rather than that of his original consultant oenologist. Tasting through several vintages recently they clearly hold more freshness, more typicity and an altogether more interesting personality than the very first wines made here. Gianelli has changed fermentation times, changed oak regime (now increasingly botte and older tonneaux) and increasingly played around the edges to make his wines more about fruit freshness and site identity than a lumbering caricature. The most recent vintages bear testament to these changes but coming vintages will reinforce the new style and in turn the superb quality. PWS