Winemaker Notes
Vibrant and well-built, this wine has power to match the cherry, leather, and earth aromas and flavors. It shows a beautiful mineral character that lifts above the bright red fruit. That special aromatic signature is followed by dark fruit and balsam herb, firm tannins and bright acidity.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Wonderfully perfumed with aromas of lavender, rosehip, blueberries, strawberries, sliced orange, chocolate and nutmeg. It’s full-bodied with firm, fine-grained tannins. Creamy and gorgeously textural. Long. Lots to like. Better after 2024.
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Wine Enthusiast
The sweet, warm nose balances delicate notes of cherry, rose and vanilla with savory streaks of soil, leather and brick dust. On the palate, dried cranberries and bitter oranges coax out the cherries' latent tartness, while the tannins are firm yet warm, creating a comforting, reliable foundation.
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Decanter
Poggiarelli hails from Cortonesi’s holdings in Montalcino’s southeast. Reaching 450 metres above sea level, the warm, well-drained site fared extremely well in 2018. In fact, this is the best vintage I have tried. Lively and intriguingly scented, it exhibits a classy balance of dark cherry, violets, stone and oak spice. The amply packed palate is neatly encased by sophisticated wood and invigoratingly firm tannins. One of the year’s more powerfully structured wines, it's still somewhat austere yet poised to age gracefully.
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Wine Spectator
Delivers heavy black cherry, blackberry and plum fruit, along with iron, sanguine and tobacco accents to stand up to the dense, beefy tannins. The tannins dominate the finish now, yet this has all the components to evolve gracefully. Best from 2025 through 2043.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Brunello Di Montalcino Poggiarelli takes on more mineral-tinged aromatics, with graphite, black cherry, and smoky earth. It is generous and full on the palate, with blackberry, meaty richness without weight, and velvety tannins. A persistent mineral drive coaxes throughout and propels the wine forward.
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.