Winemaker Notes
The wine is deep ruby in color with a fruity and floral bouquet accented by subtle spice, featuring a silky, structured, and well-balanced palate with soft, noble tannins, and pairs well with rich, structured dishes, red meat, game, and aged cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A bright red color with orange highlights, the 2020 Brunello Di Montalcino is very pretty, with a delicate rustic hint that I find quite attractive. It reveals attractive red fruit on the nose, with notes of cranberries, wild herbs, and just a subtle hint of saddle leather and blood orange. Mid-weight, it's light on its feet while delivering wonderful energy and freshness, with snappy ripe red fruit, a refreshing, angular feel, and mouthwatering saline and acidity. This is certainly one of the highlights of the 2020 vintage. Drink 2025-2040.
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Decanter
Fuligni is among those properties which deem 2020 an ideal vintage for a long-lived Riserva. I can’t wait to try it next year. In the meantime, it will be impossible to resist this annata bottling. Harvest started on 20 September, straddling the rainfall which came late in the month. Seductive and sensual, this beauty exudes pressed dark flowers and all-encompassing Asian five-spice. Chestnut and bitter roots inject a countering element to the sweet, glossy fruit that expands across the palate. Long, chalky tannins wrap around the red cherry core, building with density, and steely acidity cleanses the mouth.
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James Suckling
Smoky woodland, dried flowers and earthy notes, then cherries and red berries. Full of licorice root, too. The layered fruit profile follows through to a medium-bodied palate with additional, toasty flavors. The firm, velvety tannins show a slightly austere grain on the finish, yet balanced by the fruit and acidity. A powerful wine with lots of character. Try from 2026.
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Vinous
Rich and exuberant in the glass, the 2020 Brunello di Montalcino bursts with autumnal spices, crushed raspberries, shaved cedar and dusty rose. It impresses further with a core of ripe red berry fruits that saturate deeply, displaying a pleasant inner sweetness offset by a salty core of minerality. The 2020 leaves the palate drenched in primary concentration with a tart cranberry, licorice resonance and grippy tannins, all while maintaining a remarkably fresh persona. The 2020 has a large-scale feel with expertly maintained balance.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Here is another very elegant expression from a sunny vintage that successfully hones in on a bright, fruit-forward drinking style. The Fuligni 2020 Brunello di Montalcino shows dark fruit aromas, spruce pine cone, wildflowers and light spice. It wraps smoothly over the palate with an elegant, mid-weight texture.
Rating: 94+ -
Wine Spectator
A core of cherry and plum leads off, accented with vanilla, earth, eucalyptus and iron notes. Muscular, with an expansive finish accentuating the tannins. Enjoy this on the earlier side. Best from 2027 through 2038.
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.