Winemaker Notes
Perfect with roasted white or red meat, poultry, game and aged cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The nose starts at a café, with espresso and a cherry vanilla scone, before heading outside to a field of wild herbs. On the elegant palate, enduring notes of mocha and cherry are balanced by a spiced, medicinal undertone. Flexible yet sturdy tannins and simmering acid undergird a velvety, contoured texture.
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James Suckling
This has aromas of cherry stones, bark, olives and dried mushrooms. Tar and bitter chocolate, too. Full-bodied with finely-knit, integrated tannins. Excellent density with bright acidity and an earthy, savory edge. Drink after 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There is an earthy note here with iron ore and dusty root to start off the bouquet of the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino. That savory tone cedes to dark fruit, baked plum and a hint of roasted chestnut shell. This wine promotes a unique identity and a special aromatic profile in this vintage. Those earthy or metallic notes are also delivered to the palate, where the wine offers mid-weight density and dusty tannins. This is an ample production of 69,500 bottles.
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.