Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A dense and flavorful red with berry and plum character and hints of chocolate and sandalwood. Medium to full body and velvety tannins. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Riserva Vigneto Santa Pia is a modern and accessible wine that sheds its territorial character in favor of bright cherry aromas, soft texture and luscious flavors of spice and tobacco. The wine is smooth and opulent with deep layering in the mouth.
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Wine Spectator
A whiff of black pepper highlights the plum and black cherry flavors in this powerful red. Leather, earth and spice add depth as this cruises to a long finish. Smooth and expressive. Drink now through 2021.
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Wine Enthusiast
Made entirely with Sangiovese, this opens with aromas of oak, coconut, forest floor and plum cake that carry over to the chewy palate along with juicy black cherry, mocha and vanilla. Soft rounded tannins provide supple support.
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.
This significant Tuscan village—not to be confused with the red grape of the same name widely grown in Abruzzo and the Marche regions—was home to one of the first four Italian DOCGs granted in 1980.
Based on the Sangiovese grape (here called Prugnolo Gentile), the village’s prized wine called Vino Nobile di Montepulciano ranks stylistically in between Chianti Classico, for its finesse, and Brunello di Montalcino for its power. With a deep ruby color, heavy concentration and a firm structure given by the village's heavy, cool clay soils, most Vino Nobile di Montepulciano will demand some bottle age.