Winemaker Notes
Dark and brilliant ruby red. Intense, full, rich in spicy notes and hints of ripe small red fruit.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is a robust and richly textured wine with dark fruit flavors of prune, blackberry and black currant. Ample spice, tobacco and tar fills in the rear. This wine glides over the palate with smooth and velvety intensity. If a wine could build all of its merits on mouthfeel, this wine would do precisely that. You can drink it in the near term or wait for it to complete its aging evolution.
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Wine Enthusiast
Underbrush, spiced plum, pressed violet and French oak aromas unfold in the glass. The juicy enveloping palate doles out raspberry compote, ripe black cherry, licorice and clove alongside earthy suggestions of truffle and game that lend depth and personality. Velvety fine-grained impart finesse. Best from 2020.
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James Suckling
Lots of rose petals and rose tea with the ripe fruit in the midst, too. Full-bodied, ripe and powerful with chewy tannins and a long and flavorful finish. Needs a year or two to soften.
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.