Winemaker Notes
Pair this wine with beef bourgignon and stroganoff, lamb shank, and roasted rabbit.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a unique wine for 2009, with an amazing nose of clementines and ripe fruit. It's full-bodied and very, very velvety with a long, long finish. Classy wine. Best of the vintage.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2009 Brunello di Montalcino Montosoli pays great homage to the aromatic nuances inherent to Sangiovese: pressed rose and violet, berry fruit and warm earth all capped by bright balsam notes that recall eucalyptus, hummus, rosemary oil and root beer. There’s a smooth note of polished river stone as well. The wine shows a steady evolution in the glass, revealing more of itself slowly and carefully. Although the palate is not as fleshed out especially when compared to more structured vintages like 2007 and 2004, this edition does an impressive job of prioritizing harmony especially in terms of the balanced acidity. This is not a Montosoli of legends, but it is a very good effort. Drink: 2017-2028.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine, from perhaps Montalcino's most famous single vineyard, opens with fruit aromas of black plum, black berries, cake spices and a whiff of new leather. The ripe, round palate delivers sweet black cherry layered with notes of chocolate and hints of vanilla alongside friendly tannins. While it lacks its usual complexity, it's juicy, delicious and extremely accessible. Drink 2015–2019.
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Wine Spectator
Cherry and berry fruit is buried beneath balsamic and briar aromas and flavors in this elegant, fluid red. A bit pinched on the finish now, but this remains fresh and long. Best from 2016 through 2025.
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.