Winemaker Notes
Ruby red with an attractive garnet hue; spicy, intense and persistent in the nose, perfectly integrated with the large barrels used for ageing. An altogether very harmonious wine, tasty and well-structured on the palate.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is an extremely refined, focused young Brunello with subtle, enticing aromas of flowers and black cherries that follow through to a medium to full body, ultra-fine tannins and a finish that lasts for minutes. Best I have ever had from here. A young Brunello that already shows so much class now, but better in two or three years. Better after 2022 and beyond.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Brunello di Montalcino offers a balanced and steady interpretation with ripe fruit, blackberry, dried cherry, spice and savory tobacco. This central feature of a memorable steak dinner presents a unified aromatic front, with seamless transitions that take you from dark fruit to tar, smoke and other secondary aromas (derived from the aging process). This Brunello achieves nice balance in a classic vintage.
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Wine Enthusiast
This offers aromas of ripe black-skinned berry, scorched earth and leather. The dense palate presents ripe black cherry, tobacco and star anise alongside firm chewy tannins. Drink 2022–2030. BPW Merchants.
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Decanter
Darkly-fruited and brooding, with enticing notes of grilled pepper, dried herbs and tobacco on a bed of concentrated cranberry and strawberry jam.
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.