Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A jeweled magenta/ruby color, the 2020 Brunello Di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova is perfumed with preserved flowers, kirsch, fresh herbs, sage, and mossy earth. Full and elegant, it offers a silky mouthfeel, ripe tannins, even acidity, and a lovely, pure, concentrated, fresh feel. It's long on the palate, with its mouthwatering salinity and prettier red strawberry-noted perfume lasting on the finish. It's both approachable now and impeccably structured to enjoy over the coming 15-20 years.
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James Suckling
This is vibrant and fresh with firm, integrated tannins that melt into the wine. Medium-bodied, but with tension, focus and length. A bitter-orange note comes through. Drinkable now, but better in 2026.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Casanova di Neri 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova stands apart in the context of this portfolio. I get a distinctly creamy note that cedes to almond paste, sweet cherry and chalky stone. The wine is open-knit and generous with velvety tannins and no bitterness on the finish. It has the bulk and the fresh fruit concentration for long cellar aging. It is texturally rich, ending with hints of cedar spice and something that reminds me of freshly broken tree branches. Yields were down by about 15% in this vintage. The wine matures in 500-liter barrels for 30 months, and 63,000 bottles were created.
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Vinous
The 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova elevates things to a profound place. A cascade of cloves and allspice complement dried violets, blackberries and hints of sage. This is a total pleasure on the palate, cool-toned and soft-textured with ripe wild berry fruits underscored by minerals and spice. It finishes perfumed and dramatically long, leaving a resonance of licorice with blue and purple inner florals that linger over a bed of fine tannins. The 2020 Tenuta Nuova is dreamy with a classic feel that keeps me looking back to the glass for more. Bravo.
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Wine Spectator
Solidly in the fruity camp, this black cherry–, blackberry- and plum-flavored red is fleshy and supple, with a vibrant structure underneath. Dense and multilayered on the extended, mineral-tinged finish, where this remains well-defined and refreshing. Best from 2028 through 2045.
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.