Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Brunello di Montalcino is striking. A super-classic sense of structure provides the backdrop for beautifully delineated aromas and flavors. The 2008 is one of the most primary wines of the vintage. It needs at least a few years in bottle to develop its full range of tertiary aromas and flavors, but is quite pretty even today. Le Potazzine gave their 2008 forty months in cask, all of which it handled with grace. This is a striking wine from Le Potazzine. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2023. Rating: 92+
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James Suckling
This is racy and fresh with lovely combination of pure cherries, berries and minerals. Full to medium body, with bright acidity and clean finish. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Though compact and firm, this red exhibits lively cherry, strawberry and spicy earth notes, enhanced by a bright structure. Shows balance and energy, with a lingering aftertaste of spice and underbrush. Best from 2016 through 2030.
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.