Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Pouring a medium red hue with orange-tinged edges, the 2021 Brunello Di Montalcino Casanovina Montosoli is one of the best wines I tasted on this trip, leaping from the glass with incense, spiced orange, and darker fruit tones that never feel heavy. The palate is medium-bodied and remarkably elegant, with a floating feel, refreshing acidity, even tannins, and a long-lasting finish that keeps pulling you back. It’s a gorgeous Montosoli with fabulous length and a wide drinking window ahead of it.
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Vinous
At first coy, yet with a bit of coaxing, the 2021 Brunello di Montalcino Casanovina Montosoli becomes explosive, blending balsamic-laced black cherries with cedar spice box, incense, dusty earth and spiced citrus rinds. It is a model of balance, with silken textures and depths of polished red berry fruits underscored by crisp mineral tones as a cascade of inner florals swirls throughout. It finishes classically dry and dramatically long, leaving a subtle licorice resonance and tart wild berry concentration. The 2021 is harmony personified and guarantees a brilliant future.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Le Ragnaie 2021 Brunello di Montalcino Casanovina Montosoli (with 4,400 bottles released) comes from a single hectare of vines at 300 meters in elevation on galestro soils with clay and limestone. Aged slowly for 42 months in large Slavonian oak casks, the wine shows a distinct identity within the portfolio, balancing a gentle sweetness typical of Sangiovese with savory nuances of clove, spice and cola. The limestone influence is evident in the wine’s linear shape and freshness, giving it clarity and drive without sacrificing complexity. This is a precise and expressive interpretation that holds its own among the estate’s top crus.
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.