Winemaker Notes
An intense ruby red in color, the wine offers fruity aromas with violet and vanilla notes. On the palate, the wine is ripe, supple and balanced with tannins supported by a vein of acidity that brings out flavors of blackberry and cherry. The wine is persistent and mineral on the finish and aftertaste.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A 2017 Vino Nobile that shows tension and focus with blackberry, blueberry and hazelnut undertones. It’s full-bodied with lovely, fine and chewy tannins and a delicious finish. Drink now or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano offers an easy and classic rendition from a warm vintage. The bouquet shows wild berry aromas with rose, tilled earth and some toasted almond. This Vino Nobile spreads evenly over the palate with mid-weight intensity, good freshness and plenty of fruit purity to power a long and silky finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of red berry, blue flower and spice lead the nose. Savory and linear, the taut palate offers ripe plum, blackberry and star anise before finishing on a note of grilled sage. Drink through 2025.
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Wine & Spirits
This wine’s flavors of ripe black cherry tinged with notes of orange peel and menthol offer immediate appeal, the flavors underlined by firm, ferrous tannins that give it a sturdy framework.
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Wine Spectator
A rich version, this red displays cherry, black currant, iron and tobacco notes, with a hint of wild herb flavor. This is balanced, with a smoky cast to the lingering aftertaste. Fine length. Sangiovese and Merlot. Drink now through 2028.
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.