Winemaker Notes
Enjoy with game, grilled red meats and mature cheese.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very typical Brunello with berry and tobacco character plus hints of cedar. Full-bodied, chewy and tannic. Needs time to soften and come together. Savory wine. Drink in 2019.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Beautifully saturated and dark, the 2012 Brunello di Montalcino offers a distinctively sophisticated personality. There's an air of nobility that is natural to Brunello, but that comes in limited supply in this warm vintage. You definitely get it here. The wine's bouquet offers a compelling medley of dark fruit tones that shift into savory spicy and balsam herb. Those automatic transitions are smooth and seamless. Another nice quality of the wine is that no one element overpowers or overshadows the other. It offers a great sense of balance. This wine has many cards to play and I am confident it will play them well over the next ten years of its evolution.
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Wine Spectator
A fresh, compact style, with cherry, berry and almond fruit giving way to leather, tobacco and tar flavors. A little tough on the finish. Best from 2020 through 2028.
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Wine Enthusiast
Ripe dark-skinned berry, baking spice and Mediterranean brush aromas waft out of the glass. The full-bodied yet one-dimensional palate delivers wild cherry, black raspberry, star anise and salty mineral notes made bolder by alcohol warmth and big, velvety tannins. Drink 2019–2024.
Mastrojanni has been writing history with its wines since 1975, collecting awards from all over the world. Today, thanks to an exceptional terroir and men who have believed in it for decades, Mastrojanni has become one of the most respected Montalcino producers. The Mastrojanni winery lies in Castelnuovo dell’Abate, in the south eastern most corner of Montalcino Municipality, in the Province of Siena. An artistic and architectural heritage, surrounded by the majesty of its natural landscapes and, above all, an area particularly suitable for vine cultivation: the homeland of Brunello. A strong identity, coherence and consistency in quality: these are the values that Mastrojanni has created and cultivated over the years and which enabled the company to stand out among its peers, with its original and high-quality profile. These values are the result of a passionate, proud and respectful interpretation of nature, tradition and history of the territory.
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.