Winemaker Notes
Perfectly suitable with red meat, game and seasoned cheese, recommended with typical Tuscan dishes.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is so rich and layered with lots of ripe cherry and wet earth aromas and flavors. Full body, chewy and polished tannins. It lasts for minutes on the palate. Impressive and persistent.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
La Serena struts its stuff with the 2010 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Gemini. This beautiful wine from Andrea Mantengoli is balanced, powerful and generous in terms of its aromatic delivery. The pristine and saturated color of the wine is already an indication of the high quality to follow. A seamless array of aromas includes dark cherry, spice, leather, balsam herb and crushed mineral. What the wine does do successfully is present an integrated bouquet that is finely stitched together. It offers similar smoothness in terms of mouthfeel. This is a great under-the-radar Brunello that needs more bottle aging for sure. Give it another five years.
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Wine Spectator
Packed with black currant, black cherry, iron and wet earth flavors, this Brunello also features a wall of dense tannins. Compact and closed for now, delivering freshness and a lingering finish that demands patience. Best from 2020 through 2033. 670 cases made.
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.