Winemaker Notes
Aromas of dark red fruits, cedar box, and dried herbs leap from the glass. The palate follows with a cascade of these flavors, while the structure shows both muscle and lift.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Brunello Di Montalcino Ugolaia pours a deep red hue and offers a fantastic bouquet of kirsch, fresh lavender, polished leather, licorice, and crushed sage. The palate is medium to full-bodied and resonant with ripe tannins, refreshing acidity, and bright salty accents that keep it lifted and precise through the long finish. It’s a fabulous wine from the 2020 vintage and should drink beautifully over the next 20 years or more. Drink 2026-2046.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This special selection represents fruit from a single cru with old vines that sit on a sun-drenched plateau surrounded by forests. The Lisini 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Ugolaia shows dark cherry and blackcurrant with a point of brightness that I associate uniquely with the vintage. The vineyard is rich in iron-oxidized minerals, a soil signature that comes through clearly in the wine’s savory, mineral-driven undertone. You get the power and firmness expected of Brunello but in a slightly more slender and refined body, with spice and hints of white peppercorn and licorice appearing on the finish. Aged in traditional large oak casks, the wine is sourced from vines planted in 1984 over 1.3 hectares, resulting in a production of 8,000 bottles.
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James Suckling
Rich dried cherries and berries with hints of kirsch, toffee and earthy savoriness. Almost full body with chewy tannins and a tight, juicy finish. It needs some time to allow the tannins to soften. Drink from 2027.
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.