Description
94 points | The Wine Advocate, Monica Larner
Here's a handsome bottle inside and out. The 2017 Brunello di Montalcino Luce is an exuberant and flashy expression of Sangiovese. Just like the etched label design that features sunbeams, the wine radiates fresh fruit, cherry, spice, tar, licorice and grilled herb. The house style favors a contemporary and rich style of Sangiovese, and the wine's velvety approach is measured against the ample texture and fruit weight presented here. This warm 2017 vintage is well interpreted by the folks at Tenuta Luce (even with that high 15% alcohol). Production is 30,000 bottles.
Owned by the Frescobaldi family, this estate has weathered a billion mind-bending name changes over the years, all linked to the concept of light, or "luce" in Italian. My editors and I sat down to try to clean up the database and merge wines from a brand that existed as Luce, Luce delle Vita and Tenuta Luce at various points (with common and understandable misspellings such as Luce della Vita or Luce delle Vite). The word "viti" is "vines" in Italian, and "vita" is life. The top-shelf Tuscan red blend they make has been named Luce or Luce delle Vita at various times. To make things even more confusing, the estate introduced a new wine (with, you guessed it, another "light versus vines" inspired moniker) called Lux Vitis. You'll find that reviewed here. Dealing with the name/branding overlaps has been a game of three-dimensional chess, but we hope we've been able to make sense of it. Big exhale.