Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The wines of Donatella Cinelli Colombini are always something of a homecoming for me as I vividly remember my first sips almost 20 years ago. It is a great honor to witness their evolution over all these years. The estate's winning card is consistency, with steady results delivered year in and year out, although the 2016 Brunello di Montalcino takes the game up a notch. This wine offers purity and brightness to a degree I don't remember seeing in past vintages. This Brunello fully embraces the sharpness and linearity that this classic vintage will be celebrated for. Red cherry fruit and fresh plum follow to earthy tones, leather and balsam herb.
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James Suckling
This is a full-bodied red that opens with dried cherries, mushrooms and violets. Licorice notes too. Firm tannins and a minerally, tarry finish. Drink after 2024.
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Wine Spectator
There is plenty of ripe black cherry, black currant and plum fruit buried within the muscular structure of this red. Balanced, vibrant and resonant, with a long earth- and mineral-tinged aftertaste. Best from 2024 through 2047.
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Wine Enthusiast
Forest-floor, blue-flower and French oak aromas form the nose. The polished palate offers tart sour cherry, French oak and star anise alongside taut, fine-grained tannins that leave a firm, rather drying finish.
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.