Winemaker Notes
This wine with its imposing, full-bodied structure, endowed with powerful but delicate tannins, is the result of the best vintage years of the Brunello and a complex aging system in wood. Its impressive structure, in fact, is the result of a very long steeping and a sophisticated refining process.
Ideal with red meats, roasts, game and aged cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Baked plum, star anise, aromatic herb, new leather and pressed violet scents create an enticing bouquet. The powerfully structured savory palate offers dried black cherry, black raspberry, licorice and tobacco framed in firm fine-grained tannins. You'll also note the warmth of alcohol on the close, but the fruit richness keeps it in check. Drink after 2022.
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James Suckling
A big very ripe nose with plums and raisins. This is a rich and powerful wine, but with moderate tannins for a Brunello. This makes it quite easy to drink now. The finish has a lot of earthy depth. Probably has two decades ahead of it. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is a robust and unflinching red wine with a succulent core of ripe cherry fruit. The 2012 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Vigna Montosoli is more restrained and elegant compared to many of its peers from this hot vintage. Those scorching summer temperatures have been expertly absorbed, and the wine never feels jammy or heavy. The mid-weight finish is fine and graceful.
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.