Winemaker Notes
#57 James Suckling Top 100 Wines of the World 2025
A rich, silky red with complex aromas of wild berry and dark cherry. Floral and refined, featuring a silky texture and elegant, smooth tannins.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is an ultra-fine-textured red with a transparency and vivid nature that shine. Aromas of flowers, cherries and sandalwood follow through to a medium body with very fine tannins and a long and persistent finish. So classy. Try after 2027.
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Vinous
Sweet tobacco and licorice combine with hints of incense and mentholated blackberries as the 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva emerges from the glass. This is surprisingly juicy and vibrant on the palate, with racy red and black fruit propelled by zesty acidity as a wild citrus spike embellishes the close. The 2019 leaves the senses reeling with youthful tension yet maintains fantastic energy, tapering off with staining length and sour cherry. The 2019 is already approachable yet balanced for a long and steady evolution.
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.