Winemaker Notes
Intense and deep ruby-red color. A red berry bouquet with hints of vanilla and earth. A richness of fruit and herbs on the palate with complex tannins that leave your mouth clean and ready for more. Powerful yet elegant and complex, with a long wonderful finish.
Blend: 100% Sangiovese
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Produced in limited quantity, the certified organic Donatella Cinelli Colombini 2021 Brunello di Montalcino Prime Donne combines aromatic intensity with a restrained and balanced palate. The wine opens with rich, dark-fruited aromas that signal concentration, yet the mouthfeel remains composed, showing integrated tannins and layered fruit complexity rather than overt weight. Sourced from six dedicated hectares of vines, this bottling highlights the estate’s polished and controlled side within a richer stylistic framework.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Brunello Di Montalcino Progetto Prime Donne is a youthful ruby red color and is packed with jammy aromas of baked plum, baking spice, chestnut, leather, and truffle. The palate offers more energy and freshness, with a bright spine of acidity to propel this full-bodied Brunello and ripe, muscular tannins, while it comes into focus with more clarity through the finish. As it opens in the glass, it freshens up a bit as well on the nose. It’s a richly layered and compelling wine to enjoy over the next 15 years. Drink 2026-2040.
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.