Winemaker Notes
The 2019 Brunello is a great expression of a balanced vintage. The color is clear and vibrant to the eye. The intense nose plays on floral and herbal hints. In the mouth the tannins are balanced and well integrated, making a pleasant wine with enjoyable peaks of freshness. On the finish a clean and harmonious aftertaste.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is really fine on the palate with wonderfully integrated tannins that give tension and focus. It’s medium-bodied with lovely berry, cherry, cedar and spice. Peaches and flower stems, too. Creamy texture. Extremely long and vivid. Structured, but showing beautiful drinkability with wonderful balance and form. One to drink or hold.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Deep ruby in color, the 2019 Brunello Di Montalcino opens to aromas of ripe cherries, toasted cedar, candied flowers, rosemary, and vanilla. Approachable and medium-bodied, it’s elegant on the palate, with fine tannins and a supple texture with even balanced acidity. It offers a very appealing weightless feel, with mineral underpinnings and notes of tangerine citrus on the palate. It is a very well styled and refined Brunello to enjoy over the coming 12-15 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
The nose has the delicacy of Mandarin orange blossoms, then tart Bing cherries and sweet wild strawberries, strewn over topsoil and sweet tobacco. The cherries are at perfect maturity on the palate, while that earth and smoke and spice lurk underneath.
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Wine Spectator
Cherry, plum, leather, earth and tomato leaf flavors highlight this broad, beefy red, with iron and sanguine accents creeping in as this winds down on the finish. Succulent and long, with a dusty grip in the end. Best from 2027 through 2043.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Showing sweet fruit, plump cherry, cured tobacco and perfumed redwood, the 2019 Brunello di Montalcino has a savory side that is nicely folded into a generous core of pronounced fruit. The wine feels smooth and soft over the palate with velvety tannins. This is a bottle you can enjoy upon release if you so choose.
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Decanter
With a profusion of Mediterranean herbs, forest shrub and sweet spice, there is lovely freshness and precision here. On the palate, vanilla and eucalyptus lace through woodland berries. Surprisingly, still a bit angular in frame yet it flows evenly with gravelly tannins and vivacious acidity. Youthful exuberance needs settling as warming alcohol is apparent. Castiglion del Bosco has been working with renowned Piemontese oenologist Beppe Caviola since 2014. In 2023, ex-Vietti owners Elena Penna and Luca Currado also came on board.
Situated in the province of Siena where the renown area of "Brunello di Montalcino" is found, Castiglion del Bosco encompasses approximately 4,450 acres of land, 125 of which are vineyards with plans to plant 15 more acres. The farm is located between the historic towns of Buonconvento and Montalcino. Given the truly magnificent geographical position of the estate, perched on a hill looking down onto the surrounding valleys, exposure is optimal resulting in wines of excellent quality. These are very exciting wines, new and classic at the same time.
Castiglion del Bosco was the first to produce and bottle Brunello di Montalcino in the sixties and today represents one of the most important properties of this region. Plans are currently underway to produce new wines and expand the existing cellar. This estate prides itself on the highest level of quality combined with respect for tradition. Claudio Basla, from Altesino, also consults at Castiglion del Bosco insuring the same levels of quality that we have always enjoyed from that estate.
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.