Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is the first sample tasted in this historic retrospective. The Il Poggione 2012 Brunello di Montalcino makes for a beautiful surprise and is a fitting preface to the older vintages to follow. The wine reveals nice tannic structure at the back with lots of spice and mature fruit layered over. The quality of the silky tannins stands out especially. There is dark richness and concentration with leather and tobacco. This vintage saw its challenges, mostly due to scorching summer heat and dry winds, but the wine is all pleasure at this point in its drinking evolution. In fact, this is sheer delight. Best After 2017
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James Suckling
Walnuts and cedar with plums and hints of milk chocolate. Always subtle. Medium body, a solid core of fruit and medium-chewy tannins. Center palate of cherry fruit. Give it a year or two to soften.
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Wine Enthusiast
Ripe plum, tobacco, dark spice and balsamic aromas adorn this invigorating red. Firm and full-bodied, the palate delivers wild cherry, crushed raspberry, star anise and grilled herb flavors with a backbone of youthful, bracing tannins. It's already tempting but give it time to fully come around. Drink 2020–2032.
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Wine Spectator
Shades of leather, spice, tea and iron surround the strawberry and cherry notes in this sleek, energetic red. Firm and tense, with a solid band of tannins lending grip to the finish.
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.