Winemaker Notes
Dark ruby red that becomes garnet with ageing. Full, rich, fine, recalling spices and small red fruits. Full, intense, harmonious and warm.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Brunello di Montalcino comes off as compact but ephemeral with lasting tones of wild berry, spice, licorice and smoke. There is a fragile or delicately nuanced side of the wine that suits it very nicely. The effect is soft, silky and graceful. Some Brunellos from this vintage come off tasting too thin and short, whereas others appear as easy, accessible and elegant. Donatella Cinelli Colombini's latest release falls into the second category.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of forest floor, menthol, new leather and exotic spice take center stage on this fragrant red. Racy and linear, the lithe elegant palate delivers juicy Morello cherry, orange slice, licorice and crushed herb alongside polished tannins and vibrant acidity. Drink 2021–2026.
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Decanter
Donatella Cinelli Colombini is surely Italy’s most active advocate for women in the wine business. She has just started her second tenure as president of 800-member Le Donne del Vino, and her 40ha Montalcino property employs women exclusively. Traditionally crafted, this has an irony, savoury character underneath brighter pomegranate and rosehip nuances. It demonstrates the dusty tannins and austere edge of past vintages, though in a slightly lighter frame. Drinking Window 2020 - 2025
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James Suckling
Curious aromas of cherries and hints of raisin with leather undertones. Full-bodied, very chewy and fresh. Big wine for the vintage. Turns a little extracted at the end. Needs two years to soften. Drink in 2021.
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Wine Spectator
This already tastes mature, with mellowing cherry, leather, tobacco, earth and underbrush flavors. Shows initial ripeness, giving way to firm tannins as this winds down on the finish. Drink now through 2029.
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.