Winemaker Notes
The 2018 Donatella Cinelli Colombini Brunello di Montalcino is a billant ruby red. The aromas are very rich, fine and complex with references to spices, small red fruits and some more exotic suggestions. Structured, well balanced with silky tannins and freshness and pleasant long finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
An elegant, balanced nose has layers of umami flavor, with wild herbs, crushed rock, tar, mushrooms, balsamic vinegar and mixed spices. Deeper notes of macerated berries and dark chocolate then roll from the nose onto the palate, before a peppery finish that lingers with warmth. Banville Wine Merchants.
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James Suckling
Rich and bold aromas of chocolate, walnut, sage, spice box and dark cherries. Full-bodied with a ripe core of dark fruit, accompanied by fine-grained tannins. Lots of flavor. From organically grown grapes. Drink after 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A certified organic wine, the Donatella Cinelli Colombini 2018 Brunello di Montalcino (with 34,000 bottles made) leans toward a slightly more robust personality with lasting texture and flavor concentration. The vintage remains open-knit and largely accessible, thanks in part to its velvety mouthfeel and dried fruit nuances. You get lots of dried cherry and blackcurrant with grilled herb and crushed rose. There is a pleasant tannic firmness to give the wine more volume, and the acidity also plays a big role in underlining the wine's length.
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Wine Spectator
Pure, exhibiting strawberry, cherry, floral, mint and rosemary aromas and flavors. Delicate, despite the firm structure, delivering precision balance and a long aftertaste, with a chalky sensation that lingers. Best from 2025 through 2042.
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.