Winemaker Notes
The 2016 Fanti Vallocchio Brunello di Montalcino is an intense ruby red with garnet nuances. Sweet spice aromas such as cardamom follow the pleasant sweet notes of caramel and icing sugar. The palate shows balsamic notes of eucalyptus, spice notes pepper and fruity notes of clack cherry. Structured and full body with soft tannins that give smoothness on the finish.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Vallocchio Brunello di Montalcino offers more brooding aromatics of pine, baking spice, black cherry, and baked earth. The tannins are more present and building than the “normale,” though the structure is still well-integrated and feels weightless. This should be enjoyable 2022-2042.
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James Suckling
This is a deep and rich red with dark-chocolate, clove, smoke and leather aromas, mingled with dried tangerine peel. It's full-bodied and dark with an earthy undertone. Fine-grained tannins. Lots of bark and cacao on the finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This wine sources its fruit from a five-hectare vineyard, rich in friable schistous Galestro soil at a moderate (and warm) 250 meters above sea level. The Fanti 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Vallocchio shows roundness and softness with hints of elegant mineral and warm soil at the edges. The core of this full-bodied wine is packed with purple and black fruits such as plum and blackberry. Like the 2015 vintage that I remember well, this 2016 release also shows pretty elegance that shines through the more robust nature of this vineyard site.
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Wine Enthusiast
Mocha, truffle, anisette and camphor aromas lead the nose along with a floral whiff of violet. It’s full bodied and bracing, offering dried black cherry, licorice and tobacco alongside firm, close-grained tannin's. Give it time to fully unwind. Drink 2024–2036. Cellar Selection.
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Wine Spectator
Vibrant cherry and currant flavors are framed by savory notes of leather, spice and wild herbs in this nimble, fluid red, whose tannins leave a dusty feel, with a fresh, lingering finish. Best from 2024 through 2043.
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.