Winemaker Notes
Intense ruby color. The nose is complex with notes of cherry, leather, spices and underwood. Full in the body, characterized by tannins that are soft and integrated.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Il Poggione has done a terrific job with its 2011 Brunello di Montalcino. The wine is soft, yielding and charged with a velvety and smooth texture. It is deeply redolent of dark berry, black cherry, spice, leather and tobacco. The wine's sunny personality never feels flat or too dense. In fact, the wine offers a very tight and steely backbone that gives the wine stature and strength. This is one of my favorite Brunellos from the 2011 vintage.
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James Suckling
A red with plum, meat, cedar and sandalwood character on the nose and palate. Full-bodied, tight and structured. Racy finish. Refined at the end for a 2011.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of truffle, ripe dark-skinned berry, baking spice and grilled herb unfold on this structured red but accessible red. The ripe, chewy palate doles out fleshy wild cherry, raspberry jam, cinnamon and clove. Well-integrated tannins lend an almost weightless quality.
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Wine Spectator
A beefy style, evoking plum, leather, tobacco and earth flavors, backed by dense, dusty tannins. Starts out juicy before the gruff finish takes over. Fresh and long. Best from 2018 through 2027. 20,000 cases made.
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.