Winemaker Notes
Intense color, complex aroma of red fruits (plum and black currant), hints of tobacco and leather. Elegant with ripe tannins but very obvious characteristic of the soil from which it derives.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Lovely sweet berry and cherry character with some cedar and dried flower undertones. Medium- to full-bodied. Chewy yet polished tannins and a juicy finish. Nicely crafted for this hot vintage.
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Wine Enthusiast
Forest floor, new leather and wild berries mingle with ripe dark-skinned fruit aromas on this delicious red. It's both bold and elegant, delivering crushed raspberry, ripe Morello cherry, baking spice and tobacco set against a backbone of firm but refined tannins. Drink 2025–2032.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Armilla 2017 Brunello di Montalcino is a nicely robust wine but not in an inadvertently excessive manner. In fact, it carries its fruit weight with grace and offers a clear portrayal of cherry, dried raspberry and crushed flowers. There is some crunch or tightness to the tannins, but otherwise this wine is polished and smooth sailing from a textural point of view. It's almost ready to drink straight out of the gate.
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.