Winemaker Notes
Pair with red and roast meat.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Savory, revealing juniper, tomato leaf, cherry and plum aromas. This is also meaty, with dark fruit flavors backed by a dense, angular structure. Picks up a hint of medicinal herbs on the long finish. Very Montosoli.—Non-blind Altesino/Caparzo Retrospective (April 2022). Best from 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Altesino 2006 Brunello di Montalcino Montosoli is refined and elegant throughout. It shows resolved tannins that are almost chalky in texture over a long finish that is fueled by cherry and dried blackberry flavors. The soft richness of the mouthfeel is what sets this beautiful wine apart. This is a stunning back vintage from one of Montalcino's best estates.
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Wine Enthusiast
This gorgeous wine opens with a big, bold aromatic bang, enormous depth, intensity and concentration. This is a massive Brunello on every front including aromatics. The tones of cherry, leather, tobacco, sweet spice and toasted nut are perfectly focused and bright.
Cellar Selection
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.