Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino maintains its exotic, aromatic and spicy profile, which features gorgeous tobacco notes and hints of brown spice. It's graceful, lifted and silken in style, with ripe wild berry fruits and a cascade of violet inner florals, all coasting across a stream of cool-toned acidity. Classically structured but not forbidding, the 2018 leaves the palate classically dry and with a hint of licorice that lingers on and on. The 2018 remains one of the top wines of the vintage.
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Wine Enthusiast
A sweet and savory nose features lighter notes of cherry, vanilla and cedar standing up to umami balsamic vinegar, olives and rocks. The palate welcomes a sour wave of dried cranberries, pomegranate and citrus before an astringent finish. This wine will make the whole table sit up straight and pay attention.
Editors' Choice -
Decanter
Le Potazzine’s breezy, high-altitude site and stony well-draining soil helped offset 2018's rains and threat of mildew. Nevertheless, the estate produced about 15% less Brunello due to a strict selection. A bit timid, it takes some coaxing to release forest herbs, leather and wild strawberry. Midweight and delicate but not fragile, it moves gracefully, delivering a core of sweet fruit while supple chalky tannins cling around the edges. Almost ready now, although it possesses enough depth for satisfying mid-term drinking.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Le Potazzine delivers solid results thanks to the impressive positioning of its vines that straddle the crown of a high-elevation plain. The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino shows bright fruit with cherry and redcurrant, and that makes all the difference. Careful oak aging has enhanced the aromas. I also feel the effects of careful cellar aging in terms of mouthfeel, especially the structure and tannins. The wine is tightly stitched together with a point of sourness on the close. Give it a few more years to soften.
Rating:94+
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.