Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
One of the few ageworthy wines of the vintage, this radiant red boasts enticing scents of chopped mint, wild berry, tilled soil and pipe tobacco. It’s linear, alluring and ethereally elegant, delivering juicy strawberry, red cherry, thyme and white pepper framed in taut refined tannins and racy acidity. It’s still youthfully austere but loaded with finesse and a crystalline purity. Give it time to fully develop. Drink 2024–2034.
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Decanter
While 2016 was a 'deckchair' vintage, 2014 demanded much more work. Alessandro notes that the team did five passages through the vineyard - the equivalent of handpicking 35 hectares - in order to select only healthy grapes in what had been a cool, wet growing season with just a narrow window of opportunity to pick in sunshine. Production was down by over 50% - just 14,000 bottles. 'I made a Brunello, many of my colleagues only made a Rosso,' says Alessandro. Consequently his 2014 received a lot of positive attention from wine journalists which, he claims, resulted in him selling all but six bottles to export markets! Pure aromas of red berries and sour cherry are joined on the palate by fine, structural tannins, lacy acidity and a ripe fruit character with touches of wood and chocolate - a fine demonstration of how 'the hand of man' has an influence on what could have become a disappointing wine in lesser hands.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Il Marroneto's 2014 Brunello di Montalcino is thin and streamlined in terms of appearance. Indeed, this is one of the lightest and most luminous red wines I have seen from Montalcino in recent memory. You might mistake it for a Pinot Noir when regarded from afar. It shines with radiant ruby and garnet hues. In terms of bouquet, this Brunello emits steady aromas of wild berry, cassis, toasted almond and dried garden rose. That floral impact is the wine's most endearing characteristic. However, the wine does lose momentum in terms of mouthfeel because the finish is short and abrupt. The wine needs a year or two to flesh out.
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Wine Spectator
A whiff of black pepper leads to cherry and strawberry flavors, accented by iron and leather notes. Firm and dry, with vibrant acidity driving the dusty finish. On the lighter side, but shows personality.
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.