Nicolas Belfrage: Medium, bright, with garnet rim. Clean, not loud, but characterful herbal/floral aroma. A certain fruit-juice quality about the palate; easy drinking now but where’s it going? A certain length and a smile on the face suggests it will be good for a few years. Si spera. 16

Bruno Besa: Garnet to tawny rim. Complex, refined, intense nose of small red fruits, cedar wood, oriental spices, and smoked meat. Medium to full body, with balanced, long, refined, complex fruit and lively, floral finish. Great Sangiovese. 17.5

Andrew Jefford: Deep black-red. Ripe, warm, open; a little artless by comparison with some of the other wines in the tasting, but it gets your mouth watering and your knife tapping nonetheless. Very good wine on the palate: classic, down-the-line Brunello from a gratifyingly ripe year, full of classic plum and bay-leaf flavors. Buy with confidence, especially if attractively priced. As with almost every wine in this tasting, the 2009 vintage seems to have delivered unusual drinkability; I’m spitting, but I’d much rather be swallowing... 15.5