Winemaker Notes
Ruby red verging on garnet. The bouquet is intense, fruit-forward, spicy and floral with hints of red berry fruits enriched by delicate spicy notes. Warm, soft and very well balanced on the palate; well structured with soft tannins and long aftertaste.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of violets, lavender, licorice, nutmeg and potpourri. Full-bodied with layers of fine tannins that are crunchy and silky, showing freshness and bright fruit at the end. Caressing texture. An excellent example of the vintage. Needs time to come together, but is very pretty and satisfying. Try after 2028.
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Jeb Dunnuck
With no Riserva produced in 2021, the 2021 Brunello Di Montalcino pours a youthful, saturated red hue and has a spiced, savory profile. The nose reveals dried cherries, fresh leather, lavender, sage, and Mediterranean herbs. Medium to full-bodied, it has a weightless feel on the palate, with ripe tannins, refreshing acidity, and a long finish that carries a subtle savory richness. Drink this beautiful Brunello over the coming 12-15 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is a site I love, as it offers one of the grandest sunsets in Montalcino, and that sense of late-afternoon warmth seems to translate directly into the wine. The Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona 2021 Brunello di Montalcino shows sweet fruit and darker aromas that evoke sun-drenched slopes and fading light. There is warmth and sweetness here that flesh out over the palate, giving the wine notable volume, a hallmark of the estate’s vineyards on the southern side of the appellation. You could almost fault this wine for being too ripe, but that same sunshine-driven character defines its appeal, with alcohol reaching 15%.
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.