Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Compelling, fresh and pure, this elegant red features cherry, raspberry and wild berry aromas and flavors accompanied by hints of flowers, tobacco and mineral. Complex and harmonious, with a lingering aftertaste. Best from 2016 through 2032.
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Wine Enthusiast
Fattoi's Brunello delivers impressive intensity and dark berry nuances followed by tobacco, leather and blackberry pie. There's a touch of ripe and opulent fruit on the close followed by tangy acidity. This wine will hold nicely for many more years to come.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva may not appeal to everyone, but I was taken by the brooding, masculine personality on display. The aromas are evolved and dark with thick layers of dried cherry, smoked meat, bresaola, mahogany, cigar room and leather binding. It undergoes an excruciatingly long aging regime consisting of 48 months of barrel aging. This Riserva is ready to be popped pretty much immediately. Drink: 2015-2019. Rating: 91(+)
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James Suckling
A delicate and fruity wine with light dried fruits and cherries with hints of flowers. Medium to full body, with fine tannins and fresh acidity. Drink or hold.
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.