Winemaker Notes
#28 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2024
Bold, beautiful, an explosion of fruit, with the hallmark elegance of the hills.
Pair with braised or grilled meats, game, aged cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Notable for its pure cherry and kirsch aromas and flavors, this red is also stylish and graceful. Rose, wild thyme and stony mineral elements come into play as this develops on the palate. Beautifully integrated, fresh and firm, this glides to a long, resonant aftertaste.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Brunello di Montalcino opens to dried cassis and cranberry, and there is a hint of something floral and fragile, like crushed red rose petals or potpourri. However, the wine also shows growing momentum, especially as it opens in the glass and you start to recognize dark spice, clove, bay leaf and thyme. There is a point of sweetness on the mid-palate, even some dried raspberry, rendering an overall more accessible wine. Compared to the brilliant fruit in the Filo di Seta, this village wine has drier notes with hints of daisy greens and dried currant.
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Wine Enthusiast
The nose is fresh yet gentle, with aromas of rose petals, violets, cherry blossoms, vanilla and citrus twist. The palate sweetens with cherries, strawberries, milk chocolate and more vanilla, before a hazelnut finish. Tannins are powerful, and the acidity is lively.
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Decanter
Romitorio’s charming 2019 highlights the juiciness of Sangiovese. It is enthusiastic in scents of sweet wet earth, sage and cocoa. Spacious and airy on the palate where succulent, citrusy acidity pushes flavours of pomegranate and orange. This is elegantly framed by fine, streamlined tannins. A forest-like intensity comes through on the finish. Pleasurable even at this youthful stage. Vinification and malolactic conversion take place in a combination of stainless steel and cement followed by maturation in equal proportions of Slavonian oak botti and used French oak tonneaux.
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James Suckling
Polished and refined wine with aromas of wild strawberries, dark cherries and violets. Rich and full-bodied with balanced, soft acidity. Firm and fine-grained tannins. Energetic. Better after 2027.
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.