Winemaker Notes
The wine shows a brilliant ruby red color with garnet nuances, an intense nose of red fruits including sour cherry, currant, and pomegranate complemented by delicate spicy and balsamic notes, and a full-bodied, warm, and mouth-filling palate where initial fruity flavors give way to lively spicy hints of cocoa, berries, and coffee powder, with young but well-integrated tannins.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Packed with cherry and raspberry fruit, this red also exhibits rose, mineral and Mediterranean scrub aromas and flavors. Coiled tightly, picking up eucalyptus and gripping tannins on the finish.
-
James Suckling
Aromas of dark berries, light caramel, coffee, balsamic, smoke and dried strawberries follow through to a medium body with firm, chewy tannins and lots of new oak. Yet, it turns crisp and lively at the finish. Needs three or four years to open. Try after 2028.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Pouring a youthful medium red color, the 2021 Brunello Di Montalcino is attractive and lifted on the nose with ripe red cherries, minty herbs, pressed roses, and spiced orange peel. Medium-bodied, it has an elegant, refined texture and a beautifully balanced profile, with a bright spine of acidity and refreshing salinity through the finish. It’s a wonderful Brunello that offers immediate pleasure but has plenty of structure to age gracefully.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Showing notable volume and a velvety, approachable texture, the Fanti 2021 Brunello di Montalcino opens with a dusty mineral note that gives way to dark fruit and blackcurrant. The wine carries a powerful 15.5% alcohol content, lending warmth and weight, yet a soft, contemporary mouthfeel makes it accessible despite firm tannins that will guide its evolution with modest cellar aging. Fruit is sourced from roughly 10 hectares on galestro-rich soils.
-
Vinous
Alluringly dark and perfumed, the 2021 Brunello di Montalcino combines balsamic spices, cedar, mentholated herbs and black cherries. The palate is juicy with soft textures, polished red berry fruits and brisk acidity. Tannins come forward in full force through the finish, yet the mouth waters for more as hints of dark chocolate and licorice fade.
The Fanti Family has been producing wine and-extra virgin olive oil in Tuscany for nearly 200 years. In the 1970s, current owner Filippo first took over the Estate, marking a major turning point in its history. After redesigning and replanting across its 300 hectare property, an innovation-meets-tradition winemaking technique has resulted in extremely high-quality grape growing, all while avoiding any non-organic fertilizers. Eighty percent of the plantings in the vineyards are Sangiovese or Sangiovese Grosso, a focus that reinforces the family’s commitment to the quality wine of the region and which is reflected in Fanti’s highly rated Brunelli. Filippo’s daughter Elisa joined the team in 2007 and has since been instrumental in reinforcing their position in the international market.
When Filippo decided to reconfigure their 300 hectare property, he allocated 50 hectares to be grape vines, just half that of the olive grove. He apportioned other plots of the property to crops and woodlands in a layout that was designed to nurture the vineyards. With soil that is laden with limestone and clay, optimal daytime sun exposure and a nighttime thermal drop, the viniculture is carefully orchestrated to mirror the flavors and aromas of both the grape and the territory. The winery itself is partially built into a hill to reduce visual impact and protect the scenery.
Inside the winery, Filippo himself has carefully selected everything, from the sorting table, stainless steel vats and pumpover system to a very high standard of barrel selection. As a result, Fanti continues to produce hallmark Southern Montalcino wines with the help of their surrounding terroir and passion for making approachable wines for new wine makers and seasoned pros alike.
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.