Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Rich and perfumed nose of blueberries, ripe cherries, violets, sandalwood and mocha. Evolves to peaches and cloves. Full body with ripe, broad tannins. Dense and compact while retaining a clarity and brightness to the fruit. From organically grown grapes. Better after 2025.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The third wine from La Magia is the 2018 Brunello Di Montalcino Ciliegio, which takes things up a notch and is forward with toasted oak spice, currant, tobacco, and leather. It is full on the palate and meaty with black cherry, incense, vanilla bean, and forest floor. Its ripe and ample tannin structure is well-balanced, and it is long with fruit and spice. A polished style for sure, it is impressive and should be cellared a few more years. Drink 2026-2046.
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Vinous
The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino Ciliegio impresses from the first tilt of the glass, as a wave of balsamic spice, mentholated herbs and rich cherry sauce overcomes the senses. This is pure elegance on the palate, silky to the core, and with ripe red fruits accelerated by vibrant acidity. A pretty inner sweetness emerges through the finish, nicely contrasting the fine tannins that tug at the cheeks, as inner violet and rose tones resonate on and on. This dark beauty has a bright future ahead of it.
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Wine Enthusiast
The nose is metallic and stony, with a sleek undertone of fresh sage, before evolving into vanilla and cherries. On the palate, the balance between cherry and stony herbaceousness persists, but the ending is sweet, with a swirl of vanilla and milk chocolate creating an almost creamy texture.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A certified organic wine, the La Magia 2018 Brunello di Montalcino Ciliegio is a bright and punchy red wine with ripe cherry, raspberry, cassis, cola, white licorice and crushed limestone. The aromas are fine and delicate, but assembled as one, the wine reveals good intensity and a very clean, direct delivery. On the palate, it shows a mid-weight texture with fine tannins and fresh acidity.
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.