Winemaker Notes
Brilliant ruby red in color with aromas of ripe red fruit (strawberries, raspberries), light and freshly smoked spice, anise, heather, and white pepper. Well-structured, large and enveloping, with slightly green tannins, closed but very promising.
Perfect for roasted or grilled red meats, game, and venison. Excellent with mature cheeses.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Blueberry and orange peel with some cedar and nutmeg in the aromas and flavors. Medium to full body with firm and polished tannins and a flavorful finish. Polished and refined, yet structured. Solid wine.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Offering a clean and bright fruit profile, the Fattoria dei Barbi 2019 Brunello di Montalcino shows plum, dark cherry and blackberry. The fruit presented in this vintage is fresh, velvety, nicely contoured and still tastes quite primary in nature. This bodes well for the wine's future bottle evolution. The tannins are slightly chalky but supported by rich texture...Great job here.
-
Wine Spectator
Fresh and lively, this light-bodied red offers flavors of cherry, strawberry, earth and herbs, with crisp tannins emerging on the finish. This is approachable now but should improve with a few more years of age. Drink now through 2038.
-
Vinous
The 2019 Brunello di Montalcino opens with a mentholated freshness, blending savory herbs with wild strawberries and camphor hints. It’s softly textured and supple in feel, more lifted than expected. Crisp red berry fruits cascade throughout and are supported by brisk acidity. This finishes tannic and long, leaving a bitter tinge to linger as hints of licorice fade. I find myself craving a little more flesh on the bone. That said, with maturity should also come more fat that should help to balance the 2019.
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.