Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Firm and dense, this red sports cherry, leather, cigar box and sweet spice flavors. A juiciness midpalate adds depth. Finishes with tannins and a combination of earth, mineral and tobacco notes. Best from 2022 through 2038.
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James Suckling
An extremely dense and complex red with dried berry, cherry, floral and spice. Full body, powerful with a wealth of fruit and chewy tannins. This really is intense and beautiful. Goes on for minutes. Big wine. Drink in 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Showing a dark color and appearance, the 2012 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is a beautiful wine. The 2012 vintages deliver some great surprises, like the ones you get here. The wine is dark and powerful with full throttle aromas of black cherry and blackberry. Spice, leather and balsam herb appear at the back. It sports firm tannins and a robust structure that will carry it forward over its aging years.
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Wine & Spirits
This estate’s vines stretch over the Montosoli hill, where northern breezes cooled the vines even in the warmth of 2012, yielding a wine that is a beacon of elegance for the vintage. Cool mineral tones seep into the red berry flavors, balanced by notes of moist tobacco and fresh mushrooms. Three years in large Slavonian casks polished the firm, ferrous tannins, which will soften further with a few years of cellaring.
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Wine Enthusiast
Tobacco, baked plum, dark spice and new leather aromas mingle with a truffle note on this earthy savory red. The aromas follow over to the taut medium-bodied palate along with fleshy black cherry and star anise. Chewy tannins provide the framework. Drink 2019–2027.
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.