Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Brunello Di Montalcino Filo Di Seta is a standout and deserves some patience. It pours a saturated red/garnet hue and offers lifted aromatics of redcurrants, raspberries, blood orange, dried roses, anise, and savory herbs. The palate is medium to full-bodied and tightly coiled, with ripe tannins, refreshing acidity, and a salty mineral edge that carries the finish. It’s a wine that benefits from air now and will reward time in the cellar.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Castello Romitorio’s 2021 Brunello di Montalcino Filo di Seta is a striking expression of the vintage, sourced from a site at 270 meters in elevation on bluish galestro schist that lends power, focus and a distinct mineral edge. Planted in 1995 to old Sangiovese clones that produce naturally small clusters, the vineyard yields compact, dark fruit accented by mint and rosemary, echoing the surrounding forested landscape. A barrel selection from the 2.5-hectare site, this wine shows greater definition and density than the village Brunello, with vertical structure, poised acidity and a glossy, tightly knit texture. Fresh and bright yet richly layered, it closes on a beautifully balanced, sweet finish, gaining volume with air. Production is limited to 6,500 bottles.
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Wine Spectator
Macerated plum, cherry, blackberry, iron and eucalyptus flavors are the hallmarks of this fresh, invigorating red. Shows harmony and a juicy midpalate before the malleable tannins leave their grip on the finish. Spice and salty mineral accents add detail. Balanced and super long, this reveals excellent potential.
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Vinous
The 2021 Brunello di Montalcino Filo di Seta tempts the imagination with a darkly alluring bouquet of exotic spices, sweet lavender, mint and dried black cherries. It is cool-toned, racy and sleek, with ripe wild berry fruits and crunchy mineral tones giving way to violet inner florals toward the close. A sharp citrus twang enlivens the senses as tart raspberry meets a saturation of sweet tannins. This is a wonderfully harmonious vintage for Filo di Seta.
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.