Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2021 Brunello di Montalcino Vigna Montosoli is impossible to ignore. It opens with a distinctly savory bouquet of ashen stones, rosemary, dusty violets and crushed blackberries. Elegant in style, it floods the palate with polished red berry fruits, violet tones and silken textures. The 2021 tapers off harmoniously with excellent length, leaving edgy tannins to pinch the cheeks as nuances of sour cherry fade. This is an understated yet deeply complex beauty, and easily one of the wines of the vintage.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Marked by exceptional mineral clarity, the Canalicchio di Sopra 2021 Brunello di Montalcino Vigna Montosoli stands out for its saline, almost salty character that brings brilliance and focus to the fruit. The friable, schistic galestro soils of Montosoli lend the wine its signature intensity and brightness, resulting in a deeply expressive and beautifully articulated palate that shines in this vintage. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel, followed by 36 months of aging in large Slavonian oak casks.
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Wine Spectator
Balsamic notes of tomato leaf, juniper and eucalyptus combine with cherry, plum and iron flavors in this dense, juicy and powerful red. Thick tannins dominate the finish today yet never feel overly astringent or aggressive. The core of fruit matches the structure, giving balance, while the long finish shows its potential.
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James Suckling
A deep and lightly savory nose with good harmony and a hint of dried fruit. The result is a wine that shows richness, generous fruit and fine, dusty tannins. Full-bodied for a Brunello, with very juicy fruit and a long, linear, structured finish.
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.