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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James Suckling
So perfumed and seductive on the nose, with black cherries, minerals and rose petals that follow through to a medium body with ultra-fine tannins. Its finesse and vision tell you why Brunello is great. Long, vivid and beautifully balanced. Already a joy to taste, but best after 2027.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Displaying a jeweled ruby hue, the 2021 Brunello Di Montalcino is refreshing and complete, with ripe red cherries, orange peel, dusty earth, potpourri, cocoa, and bright spice on the nose, along with hints of floral incense and delicate smoky earth. The palate is medium to full-bodied and energetic, with refined, angular tannins, zesty lift, and balanced length that keeps it classic and vibrant. I love this vintage for Fuligni, and it should continue to improve with time. Drink 2026-2040.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Fuligni 2021 Brunello di Montalcino is an elegant expression with layers of dark fruit and blackcurrant that give way to pressed rose, grilled herb and petrichor, recalling rocks bathed in hot sunlight. The wine is chiseled and refined, owing to the classic nature of the vintage and the restrained, non-extractive house style that distinguishes Fuligni, a historic estate based just outside the village of Montalcino on higher-elevation sites. The wine shows precision with fine tannic tension and a linear, poised finish, making it an ideal match for traditional Tuscan dishes such as pappardelle al cinghiale or grilled lamb with rosemary.
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Wine Spectator
Focused on its cherry and blackberry core of fruit, this red is generous, vibrant and expressive. Dense tannins add lift, while the finish picks up woodsy, underbrush notes. Balanced and open for the vintage, this should be approachable soon. Best from 2028 through 2045.
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.