Winemaker Notes
Deep ruby with garnet hues. Structured and complex, with a lovely nose of dried herbs, leather, earth, vanilla and strawberry, jam and plenty of plummy, flavorful fruit on the palate.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Shows terrific purity, featuring rose, cherry, strawberry and graphite aromas and flavors. Delivers plenty of finesse alongside a firm structure. Offers excellent balance and a lingering aftertaste. Drink now through 2032.
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James Suckling
Aromas of tar, berries and violets follow through to a full body, firm and silky tannins and a juicy finish. A little tannic now. Give it a year or two to soften. Try in 2020.
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Wine Enthusiast
Subtle aromas of ripe forest berry, scorched earth, exotic spice and a balsamic whiff of camphor lead the nose. The linear palate offers dried black cherry, ground pepper and a hint of grilled herb alongside fine-grained tannins.
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.
This significant Tuscan village—not to be confused with the red grape of the same name widely grown in Abruzzo and the Marche regions—was home to one of the first four Italian DOCGs granted in 1980.
Based on the Sangiovese grape (here called Prugnolo Gentile), the village’s prized wine called Vino Nobile di Montepulciano ranks stylistically in between Chianti Classico, for its finesse, and Brunello di Montalcino for its power. With a deep ruby color, heavy concentration and a firm structure given by the village's heavy, cool clay soils, most Vino Nobile di Montepulciano will demand some bottle age.