Winemaker Notes
Ruby, tending towards garnet with age. On the nose, penetrating, ample, and extremely complex, with wild berry fruit. Dry, warm, firm, harmonious, delicate and austere, and persistent.
Drink with roasts, grilled and spit-roasted meats, game, braised meats, and aged cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A bright red with firm, integrated tannins that provide length and focus. It’s medium-bodied with citrus and berry character and excellent length. I like it now, but give it two or three years to show its full potential. Same quality as 2019? Best after 2027.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Bright red in color, the 2020 Brunello Di Montalcino is inviting and pure with aromas of ripe red cherries, fresh Mediterranean herbs, dried lavender, and roses. Medium-bodied, it's inviting all the way throughout, with fine tannins, refreshing acidity, and a clean, orange citrus-noted finish, with gently tapering length. If it hasn't gone up in price, it's still one of the better values in the region. Highly consistent. Drink 2025-2040.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
In the bottle with the green label and proprietor Elisabetta Gnudi Angelini's signature in gold, the Caparzo 2020 Brunello di Montalcino offers a lot of fresh fruit with cherry and redcurrant at the front. This vintage succeeds at bringing us a very elegant and streamlined style. The aromas take on more volume with time, adding hints of blue flower, rose and toasted coriander seed. It finishes with lean consistency, silky tannins and medium length.
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Vinous
The 2020 Brunello di Montalcino lifts from the glass with an enticing blend of crushed plums and wild berries accentuated by lavender and flowery underbrush hints. This displays silken textures and a lifted feel, with tart red berry fruits guided by brisk acidity as a cascade of inner florals swirls throughout. The 2020 leaves a coating of sweet tannins and a bitter blackberry tinge while finishing with wonderful length and concentration.
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Wine Spectator
This harmonious red reveals ample energy and dimension, with a spice hint framing cherry, iron, sanguine and underbrush flavors. Its tannins are dense and present but not obtrusive. Fine length. Best from 2027 through 2042.
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Decanter
The first property Elisabetta Gnudi Angelini purchased in Montalcino, Caparzo is one of five estates she now owns with her children, Igino and Alessandra. Vineyard holdings have grown from 30 hectares in 1998 to 110ha today. A blend of sites, the classic Brunello is relatively expressive with attractive perfumes of mint, pepper and bay leaf atop strawberry and blackberry. Well weighted though wanting a bit more definition, the palate proposes a mix of slightly confected red and dark berries. Juicy acidity keeps this bright and afloat, and pliant tannins say ‘drink now’.
Among Italy's elite red grape varieties, Sangiovese has the perfect intersection of bright red fruit and savory earthiness and is responsible for the best red wines of Tuscany. While it is best known as the chief component of Chianti, it is also the main grape in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and reaches the height of its power and intensity in the complex, long-lived Brunello di Montalcino. Somm Secret—Sangiovese doubles under the alias, Nielluccio, on the French island of Corsica where it produces distinctly floral and refreshing reds and rosés.
Famous for its bold, layered and long-lived red, Brunello di Montalcino, the town of Montalcino is about 70 miles south of Florence, and has a warmer and drier climate than that of its neighbor, Chianti. The Sangiovese grape is king here, as it is in Chianti, but Montalcino has its own clone called Brunello.
The Brunello vineyards of Montalcino blanket the rolling hills surrounding the village and fan out at various elevations, creating the potential for Brunello wines expressing different styles. From the valleys, where deeper deposits of clay are found, come wines typically bolder, more concentrated and rich in opulent black fruit. The hillside vineyards produce wines more concentrated in red fruits and floral aromas; these sites reach up to over 1,600 feet and have shallow soils of rocks and shale.
Brunello di Montalcino by law must be aged a minimum of four years, including two years in barrel before realease and once released, typically needs more time in bottle for its drinking potential to be fully reached. The good news is that Montalcino makes a “baby brother” version. The wines called Rosso di Montalcino are often made from younger vines, aged for about a year before release, offer extraordinary values and are ready to drink young.