Winemaker Notes
Intense ruby red in color, this Brunello has a complex and balanced nose, showing aromas of raspberries and licorice with notes of chocolate and spice. Warm and full on the palate, the flavors are beautifully pronounced with excellent length.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A fruity style, this red boasts cherry, raspberry, earth, wild thyme, vetiver and tobacco flavors. Graceful and vibrant, displays finesse, despite robust tannins. All the elements are there, but need a few years to harmonize. Best from 2025 through 2045.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Mocali 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Le Raunate (with only 6,000 bottles released) is a soft and plush expression with bright cherry, dried forest berry, tilled earth and blue flower. There are subtle aromas of iron ore and candied orange peel as well. Like many of the other wines from this vintage, the mouthfeel is tight and rich, with young tannins that still need to unwind. The compact nature of the mouthfeel will serve the wine well as it continues its bottle evolution.
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James Suckling
Pronounced aromas of sandalwood, cloves and chocolate, layered on top of dried fruit and dried mushrooms. Some soy sauce notes. This is a full-bodied red with firm, dusty tannins. Slightly one-dimensional at the finish.
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.