Winemaker Notes
Mocali Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is a ruby red garnet color. The wine is penetrating at the nose with fruit and vanilla aromas. Robust and armonic in mouth, and a bit tannic. This wine is produced in the best vintages.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Here is a darkly saturated and rich expression from one of the most memorable vintages of the past 10 years. The Mocali 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is a layered and generous expression with dark cherry, blackberry preserves, licorice and pressed blue flowers. The wine completes its malolactic fermentation in oak and ages in botte for a long 48 months. The mouthfeel is soft and rich. Rating: 94+
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James Suckling
Sweet berries and citrus on the nose and palate with cedar, dried flowers and cocoa butter. It’s full and flavorful with lots of pure fruit and citrus and pure-fruit undertones. Very tight now, but will open and blossom with more time in the bottle. Try after 2023.
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Wine Enthusiast
Pretty aromas of fragrant blue flower, perfumed berry and botanical herb waft out of the glass. Elegantly structured, the medium-bodied, savory palate doles out crushed raspberry, dried cherry, baking spice and star anise accompanied by polished, fine-grained tannin's. Drink through 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.