Le Ragnaie Ragnai Brunello di Montalcino 2010
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker -
Wine &
Spirits -
Wine
Spectator
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
So much dried citrus and smoke on the nose, with sliced meat and plums. Full body and a dense, intense palate with amazing fruit and intensity, but it's held back. Powerful and in reserve but so balanced and harmonious. An old-vine wine with a big future. Made from biodynamically grown grapes.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 Brunello di Montalcino Ragnaie V.V. shows a masculine personality next to the estate's other Brunello wines. Dried fruit and dark cherry are followed by leather, spice, tobacco and pressed rose petal. The wine is also redolent of savory tones including bresaola, smoked ham and crushed white pepper. Silky tannins segue to fresh acidity and long persistency. This Brunello shows a greater degree of evolution and will perform nicely in the medium and long term.
Rating: 94+
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Wine & Spirits
Cool black cherry fruit and high-toned herbal notes give this an alpine feel consistent with fruit sourced from 40-year-old vines in Vigna Vecchia, a plot in one of Montalcino’s highest vineyards. Riccardo Campinoti ferments his Brunellos in concrete and ages them exclusively in large Slavonian oak casks. This one is bright and juicy, with intense concentration, spicy notes and grippy tannins. It shows the energy and drive to improve for at least a decade.
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Wine Spectator
Rich and laced with minerality, this licorice- and cherry-tinged red is vibrant, almost racy. Dense and tightly packed, ending with a light-grained texture.
Le Ragnaie is known for its elegant, terroir-driven wines that stand out in this Tuscan powerhouse category. The owner and winemaker, Riccardo Campinoti, acquired the property in 2002 and has expanded the estate to include 28 hectares covering three distinct parcels within Montalcino. The parcels Le Ragnaie and Petroso both are centered around the village of Montalcino and have the region’s highest elevation vineyards and oldest winemaking history, respectively. Additionally, the vineyards La Fornace Loreto and La Cava lie in the southern portion of Montalcino within Castelnuovo dell’Abate, adjacent to the iconic Poggio di Sotto.
Le Ragnaie makes complex, traditional wines from Sangiovese Grosso, Riccardo’s wines exhibit elegance and finesse from by farming some of the highest altitude vineyards in Montalcino. All four Brunello wines are fermented in concrete without selected yeast followed by a long maceration up to 90 days and three years in large Slavonian oak botti. All wines are bottled unfiltered and certified organic in the vineyards and cellar.
When asked about his winemaking, Riccardo describes himself firmly as a Traditionalist. He believes in long maturations, light-handed winemaking, elegant tannin extraction, refined concentration and aging in large Slavonian oak barrels. He pays close attention to yields so as to not create heavy handed wines, allowing the terroir of each site to be fully expressed.
“The key is balance. You want to have a good balance between alcohol, acidity, structure, and finesse. I think, for Sangiovese, it's a little bit more difficult to obtain this with small barrels. I think Sangiovese, in my opinion, needs to age slowly with the right amount of exposure to oxygen via the oak staves which are porous, whilst ageing in the barrel, and also the right amount of oak. New barrels, especially small new barrels, give off a lot of oak to the wine. There was a debate about whether this oak would dissolve after a few years. I think it doesn't. I think its always a bit more present in the wines once they are bottled. And also the tannins are a bit more astringent.” – Riccardo Campinoti
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.