Winemaker Notes
Intense ruby red with fruit aromas ripe red wine and spices. Very elegant and structured with good acidity and with pleasant and soft tannins.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Blackberries, black walnuts and black cherries, as well as loads of chewy tannins. Some smoked wood, wood tannins and even black truffles. It’s full-bodied and powerful with loads going on. It just keeps growing on the palate. So much wet earth and black olive at the finish with porcini mushrooms, too. Needs time to soften. Crazy finish. Try after 2025.
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Wine Enthusiast
Red berry, violet and menthol aromas fill the glass alongside a whiff of underbrush in this full-bodied red. The tightly wound palate offers Marasca cherry, licorice, tobacco and a hint of game set against a backbone of assertive, fine-grained tannins. Flashes of bright acidity keep it balanced. Drink 2024–2036.
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Jeb Dunnuck
From vines in the historic Montosoli area, in the north, the 2016 exhibits some rusticity with saddle leather, cherry pit, licorice and celery seed. There is concentration on the midpalate with drying tannins, and notes of amaro, and dried orange peel. Classic and savory, the 2016 has a long finish. Drink 2024-2034.
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Wine Spectator
Muddled plum and cherry flavors are enhanced by leather, black tea and iron notes in this sleek yet beefy red. Chewy tannins line the finish, yet this remains lively and finds a nice equilibrium in the end. Best from 2024 through 2047.
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.