Winemaker Notes
Ideal with cheese, meat and game.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Podere Brizio's 2011 Brunello di Montalcino is a charming expression that delivers intensity, purity and a good dose of power as well. The bouquet here is seamless and smooth in a way that is not common for Sangiovese. The Tuscan grape tends to show more thorny points and sudden peaks that you don't get here. Instead, the delivery is long and polished. That spectacular mouthfeel is ultimately what distinguishes this pretty wine.
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Wine Enthusiast
Poised and polished, this opens with aromas of mature plum, baking spice, menthol and a whiff of new leather. The ripe but restrained palate shows structure and elegance, offering mature black cherry, pomegranate, star anise, and chopped herb. Tightly wound, fine-grained tannins proved the framework.
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James Suckling
The 2011 Brunello di Montalcino is plump, juicy and forward, with lovely palate presence and fine balance. Sweet red cherry, raspberry and wild flowers abound. This is an unusually youthful, floral 2011 Brunello that was almost certainly freshened up with a younger vintage. The estate's Brunello is atypically fresh for the vintage and not especially representative of the year, but it is quite tasty if taken on its own terms.
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.