Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Brunello Di Montalcino Casanovina Montosoli is lush with ripe red cherry, crushed stones, and forest floor. It has a more expansive nature on the palate, with ripe and velvety tannins that bring more richness and depth to the wine, along with notes of pressed violets, plum, and dark mineral earth. It has a long finish and is the more full-bodied of the wines in the range.
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Decanter
To preserve freshness, Riccardo Campinoti bottled all his Brunello a full year earlier than usual and reduced time in wood from 36 to 30 months. Nevertheless, Casanovina is even more closed than when I tried it a year ago, right after bottling. Of Le Ragnaie’s four new releases, this is the most complete and boasts the ripest, most dignified tannins, although they are still firm. Aromas are redolent of red berries, violet, fennel and lilac. It will need time to reveal its full potential, but for now, crunchy fruit and steely acidity distinguish the mineral-led, energetic palate.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
One of three single-vineyard wines released by Le Ragnaie, the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino Casanovina Montosoli reveals fresh and saturated fruit flavors of dark cherry, pressed blueberry and mild spice. You feel the soft richness of ripe fruit. You also feel a distinctive mineral signature with chalky crushed stone that adds to the dryness and powdery tannins of this wine. Despite all that, there is a lingering sweet cherry note on the close. It needs a few more years to flesh out. The wine ages in both cement and large oak botte.
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Wine Enthusiast
A nose that manages to seem both fruit-forward and earthy has cherries, strawberries and raspberries, then herbs and topsoil and finally a hint of graphite. The palate stays buoyant and sanguine with crunchy red berries and iron-rich soil and gets structure from rigid tannins and vibrant acidity.
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Wine Spectator
A fluid, iron- and tobacco-tinged red, with a core of cherry and currant flavors wrapped in a firm, well-integrated structure. Reveals earth and savory Mediterranean scrub accents on the finish. Shows excellent harmony and finesse.
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.