Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
An intense and deep wine with aromas of potpourri, dried cherries, vibrant orange peel and hints of leather, rhubarb, licorice and smoky wood. Full-bodied, it shows fierce grainy tannins. It’s youthful but refined and crisp, with a warming yet balanced finish. Long, licorice aftertaste with earthy notes. Made for the long haul.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Salicutti 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Sorgente shows bright fruit and lots of energy with wild cherry and blackcurrant. Fruit is sourced from a site with sandstone at 320 meters in elevation. The tannins are silky, and the wine extends long over the palate thanks to the momentum it gains from its fruit and its acidity. It ages in oak for three years for elegant and finessed results.
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Vinous
Darker and more serious than the Piaggione tasted alongside it, the 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Sorgente opens with an earthy mix of mentholated herbs, rose petals and black raspberries. It's lifted, ethereal and refined, with hints of white pepper complicating its ripe wild berry fruit notes. A kiss of sour citrus adds a tug of tension toward the close. Violet and lavender tones resonate as the 2020 finishes with dramatic length, leaving a web of fine tannins and a tart cranberry concentration that pinches at the cheeks.
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Wine Spectator
A rich red, revealing flavors of black cherry, black currant, iron and menthol. Broad, chalky tannins provide a base, finding equilibrium with the other components. Leans to the dry side, with a tactile feel, yet there's ample fruit. Best from 2027 through 2043.
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.