Winemaker Notes
The fabric and elegance of this wine, as a result of clonal selection, choice of terrain, as well as thinning out of the vines before and during the harvest, make it suitable for long ageing. It will be interesting to open a bottle after some years with the trepidation of the wait and of the emotion of discovery to experience magical sensations.
Thanks to its structure and elegance, it is perfect with the best Mediterranean specialties and with game, roast meat or mature cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Gualto (with 4,000 bottles made) is a firmly textured wine that needs extra bottle time to relax and unwind. This youthful expression is still somewhat firm and stubborn with linear tones of black fruit, spice, smoke and camphor ash. This wine ages in 20-hectoliter botte for 36 months and evidently needs more time to soften and evolve.
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Wine Spectator
Offers a clear expression of cherry flavors, with hints of plum and strawberry, augmented by leather, tobacco and almond hints. A dense matrix of acidity and tannins lifts all the elements, while the aftertaste lingers. Excellent harmony. Best from 2022 through 2040.
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James Suckling
This has an array of savory spices with cedar, herbs and dried-berry aromas, leading to a palate that has a bright, fresh array of blue fruit. Neat and approachable Brunello. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of French oak, black-skinned fruit, underbrush and leather aromas come together on this. On the linear structured palate, tight-knit fine-grained tannins and fresh acidity frame mature Marasca cherry, prune, clove and a hint of coffee bean before the firm finish.
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.