Winemaker Notes
Excellent with roasts and spit-roasted meats, grilled meats, game, braised meats, and aged cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Incredibly polished and elegant, with gorgeous black cherry, asphalt, spice and licorice aromas and flavors, the 2011 Brunello Di Montalcino Riserva is full-bodied, seamless and silky on the palate. Possessing no hard edges, sweet tannin, and a beautiful finish, this 100% Sangiovese is just singing today, yet I suspect it will easily keep for another 10-15 years. This is a straight-up gorgeous wine.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is a dense and inky dark wine with hardly any light penetration. The bouquet is lavish and extravagant with opulent layers of black fruit, plum, dried blackberry, exotic spice, cigar box and red rose. Those savory notes of tobacco and leather are my favorite part of this wine. I love the way they wrap thickly over the palate and spread so generously on the finish. The more I study this wine, the more it reveals. The thick mouthfeel offers some chewiness and there's a distinct layer of jammy fruit that adds some weight to the finish. This wine needs a little longer to integrate, but should last in the long run.
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Wine Enthusiast
After a few swirls of the glass, this elegant red releases aromas of ripe wild berry, pipe tobacco, dried herb and a whiff of dark spice. The supple succulent palate doles out fleshy black cherry, baking spice and a hint of licorice framed in velvety tannins. Smooth and delicious, it's already approachable, but will offer fine drinking for several years or more. Drink through 2021.
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James Suckling
A soft and velvety Brunello with plum, chocolate and cherry character. Full body, velvety tannins and a luscious finish.
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Wine Spectator
This is packed with sweet black cherry fruit and hints of violet and spice. The earth and leather elements are muted, making this atypical, yet the firm, chewy tannins are there. Fine length. Best from 2018 through 2029.
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.