Winemaker Notes
A Riserva of great elegance and balance in its structure and aromatic profile. Brilliant ruby red color. On the nose, the aroma is complex, endowed with elegance and finesse. Hints of violets, blackberries and pink pepper combine with citrus notes and nuances of pipe tobacco on the finish. In the mouth it is full, the tannins are important, soft and sweet. Warm, enveloping finish. A Riserva of great persistence.
Long aging wine, perfect as a meditation wine. It combines well with rich and structured dishes, but also with particularly savory food such as aged cheeses or cured meats.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Intense yet restrained raspberry fruit wrapped up in black pepper, nuts and blood oranges. Crunchy palate with a medium body, crisp acidity and thick, grainy tannins that need time to soften. Best from 2028.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A youthful and saturated ruby/magenta color, the 2018 Brunello Di Montalcino Riserva jumps from the glass with a fruit-forward and lush nature, offering loads of black cherry liqueur, candied flowers, sweet cedar, and polished leather. It moves with ease to the palate, taking with it all its primary fruit, which cushions its ripe, rich tannins and carries through a rather long finish, with notes of tea leaf on the finish. This impressive wine is going to show at its best if given another couple of years. Drink 2025-2040.
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Wine Spectator
This dense version is saturated with plum, cherry, beef bouillon, earth and menthol flavors. Beefy in profile, with muscular tannins gripping the long aftertaste. Best from 2027 through 2038.
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Decanter
From a selection of the best bunches across specifically designated parcels, Poggio alle Mura Riserva is produced every vintage. Quantities, however, vary and in 2018, this was limited to 12,000 bottles: along the same lines as 2017. Attractive and evocative, this emerges with scents of sun-dried Mediterranean scrub on a backdrop of vanilla-infused macerated cherry and red plum. Mid-weight and mellow with warming alcohol, the palate brings in perfumed strawberry supported by vibrant acidity, while savoury tannins provide a gentle powdery frame. Already accessible.
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Vinous
Dusty and dark with a cascade of dried flowers, cedar shavings and cloves, the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino Poggio alle Mura Riserva makes itself known in the glass. This pampers the palate with its soft and enveloping textures, as orange-laced wild berry fruits flow throughout. A saturation of saline minerals forms, mingling with edgy tannins under an air of inner rose and balsamic spice, as the 2018 finishes long and staining with a bitter dark chocolate resonance. Banfi did an admirable job maintaining freshness here, yet it remains a big and more brooding interpretation of the vintage.
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.