Winemaker Notes
Ruby red with garnet hues. Intense aromas of ripe plums, cassis, and maraschino cherry with notes of incense, cocoa, sweet tobacco, and spicy black pepper. The palate is full-bodied with an elegant and complex structure. The tannins are persistent and pronounced yet rich and smooth. Very well balanced with red fruit, chocolate, and sweet tobacco on the long finish.
Greppone Mazzi Brunello di Montalcino is a rich, intensely flavored wine that begs for rich and hearty dishes such as rack of lamb, seared duck breast with grilled portobello mushrooms, or cinghiale (wild boar ragu) over pasta. It's also a perfect complement to cheeses such as pecorino toscano and taleggio.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of underbrush, tilled soil, iris, new leather and red-skinned berry take shape in the glass. It's full in body yet shows a weightless intensity, offering Marasca cherry, raspberry, star anise and tobacco set against a backbone of firm acidity and taut, polished tannins. Still tightly wound and reserved, it's a classic in the making, destined for a lengthy stay in the cellar. Drink 2028–2043.
Cellar Selections -
James Suckling
Forest floor, tar, roasting herbs, dried raspberries and red plums. Full body, tightly wound tannins and a tangy, medium-chewy finish. Drink in 2020.
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Wine Spectator
Aromas of cherry, leather, licorice, spice and tobacco are in harmony with the solid structure. Shows notes of sanguine and iron, ending with excellent length. Best from 2021 through 2034.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Here's a bold and concentrated expression of Sangiovese. The 2013 Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Greppone Mazzi reveals ripe fruit tones with luscious cherry and blackberry on the front line. It delivers softer tones of oak spice and cinnamon at the back with some balsam herb and crushed granite as well. This is an immediate, mid-weight effort to drink in the near and medium term.
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.