Winemaker Notes
Clear, intense ruby. Complex, elegant, intense. Notes of ripe cherry, chocolate and tobacco. Slightly spicy and flowery. Structured, sophisticated, and lingering. Smooth tannins, with a long and juicy finish and marked acidity. Harmonious, balanced, with a great possibility of developing.
Pair with red meats, seasoned cheeses and game.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Brunello Di Montalcino sports a deeper red hue and a richer, more immediate personality, with tobacco, blood orange, ripe cherries, and iron-tinged earth. Medium to full-bodied, it has a slightly fleshier texture and broader tannins than the 2021, yet it stays balanced and avoids heaviness. It’s already quite approachable and should drink best over the coming decade.
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Vinous
The 2020 Brunello di Montalcino is understated in the glass, slowly evolving with a blend of dried black cherries, cinnamon sticks and lifting mint aromas. This possesses a balanced inner sweetness and cool-toned acidity that elevates its ripe cherry-berry fruits as crunchy mineral tones amass toward the close. A tinge of clove combines with sour citrus and spice-orange as the 2020 tapers off gently tannic and long with a pleasantly bitter note that calls the taster back to the glass.
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.