Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The estate’s 2004 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva emerges from the glass with a dark, brooding expression of scorched earth, licorice, tar, smoke and plums. This is a decidedly virile Brunello from Barbi, yet the wine’s balance is impeccable. The richness of the fruit carries through to the powerful, imposing finish. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2024.
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Wine Enthusiast
Pretty notes of Italian espresso, chocolate and spice revolve around a core of solid black fruit. This is an elegant and refined wine that boats a traditional style that is never overdone or too powerful. In fact, it showcases its delicate berry nuances very nicely in the mouth. Drink after 2014.
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Wine & Spirits
Here's a brunello with some energy behind it. The flavors open up and fly, as if you'd taken a handful of dirt and thrown it at the sun. It tastes of cherry liqueur and raspberry layer cake, but it isn't sweet. Instead it's spicy with savory tobacco and game scents. Juicy and mouthwatering, it's a red to decant for roast squab.
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.