Winemaker Notes
One of the most sought after wines from Montalcino, Montosoli is consistently a blockbuster red. Its intense ruby red color tends towards elegant garnet with age. On the nose, it shows its complex personality with a delicious blend of black cherry, raspberry, violet, licorice, vanilla and black pepper. Extremely enticin, opulent and elegant on the palate, with a warm, longlasting finish, Montosoli is a wine for special occasions.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The single-vineyard 2003 Brunello di Montalcino Montosoli, from one of the region's top sites, is fresher and more vibrant than the regular bottling, with superior balance and finesse. It shows lovely plumpness, clarity and depth in its black cherries, oak, spices and tobacco. This medium to full-bodied wine should drink beautifully over the next decade or so. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2018.
-
Wine Spectator
Wonderful purity of blackberry and plum skin with just a hint of lilacs on the nose. Full and silky, with chewy tannins and a long finish. This shows loads of smokey, gamy and length. Needs time in the bottle. My favorite of the group.
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.