Winemaker Notes
Gualto is a wine that has considerable ageing potential by virtue of the outstanding quality of its raw material, which was carefully selected in the vineyard. Even after ten years, the wine's original elegance will still be present. 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.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Sleek and linear in profile, this red offers intense strawberry, raspberry, rose and wild herb flavors, with flourishes of mineral and tobacco. Solidly built, this leaves a long, resonant aftertaste of fruit, mineral and spice notes. Distinctive for its bright red fruit flavors. Best from 2024 through 2045.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Offering ripeness and texture, the Camigliano 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Gualto is a fun and accessible wine. The bouquet is very expressive, even at this young stage. I got a charge out of those shifting aromas of dark fruit, ripe cherry, rosemary essence and a touch of eucalyptus oil that lift from the bouquet. Those balsam herb aromas are well defined, and they always appear with the prettiest intensity in the warmer vintages like 2015. Riserva Gualto shows good structure and enough acidity to keep those fruit flavors fresh and bright.
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Wine Enthusiast
Subtle aromas recalling camphor, scorched earth and new leather emerge from the glass. Rounded and juicy, the immediate palate offers raspberry jam, hazelnut and roasted coffee bean framed in compact, polished tannins.
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James Suckling
A succulent, juicy red with plum, berry and some meat and spice undertones. Medium body, medium tannins and a lightly bitter finish.
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Vinous
The 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Gualto from Camigliano shows a mix of wild strawberry, sage, leather and moist earth, with a hint of sweet spice that comes forward over time. It’s silky and savory in the mouth, balancing red berries with tactile salty mineral tones and slow-mounting tannins which come forward toward the close. While balanced, clean and with a classically structured finale, I simply don’t find the depth here to warrant extended cellaring.
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.