Winemaker Notes
Ruby red color, which tends to garnet red with aging. Very complex and intense nose, with fleshy fruit aromas, followed by elegant faded violet and rose notes. The taste is powerful, juicy, with a pleasant vertical freshness and well integrated tannins. Long and fruity finish with lots of berries.
Ideal with dishes rich in flavor with red meats, game, and hard cheeses. Perfect also as a meditation wine.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Brunello Di Montalcino Montosoli is in a beautiful place today, offering fresh aromatics of blood orange, cranberries, crunchy red berries, and lifted floral perfume. Medium-bodied, it has terrific energy and definition, with ripe tannins and mouthwatering acidity that keep the wine alive and refreshing, even as it continues to develop. It is already a pleasure to drink, but it has the structure to go another two decades with ease.
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Wine Spectator
Fresh and vivid, this red features cherry, raspberry, plum, floral, black tea and mineral aromas and flavors. The well-defined fruit character is nicely balanced by earthy, savory elements, lively acidity and refined tannins. This is complete, with terrific finesse and complexity. Best from 2024 through 2048.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of underbrush, rose, wild berry and new leather are front and center. Hailing from Montosoli, one of Montalcino’s most revered vineyard sites, the full-bodied palate combines power and finesse, delivering ripe cherry, oak-driven spice and coffee bean alongside firm, close-grained tannin's. Fresh acidity keeps it balanced. Give it time to fully develop. Drink 2026–2046.
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.