Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A super-restrained and almost austere riserva with rhubarb and stony minerality enhanced by sweet violets, red cherries and an almost lavender depth. On the full-bodied palate, this shines with freshness and tension, showing firm yet velvety extracted tannins and an overall tight-knit structure. It finishes with a youthful cherry-pit character. Drinkable now but best from 2026.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This wine is now classified as a Riserva. In the bottle with the black wax capsule, the Salicutti 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Teatro shows aromas of tea leaf and chamomile along with very pretty floral impressions that cede to wild berry and redcurrant. The Salicutti house style interpreted by owners Sabine and Felix Eichbauer stresses fruit nuance and floral intensity. From galestro soils with quartz, the wine offers a very fine texture that is absolutely seamlessly delivered. There's a hint of candied raspberry on the close.
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Vinous
The 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Teatro Riserva entices as a whiff of sweet mint and exotic spice gives way to citrus-laced blackberries and hints of black tea. This is lifted and graceful in feel, with soft textures and juicy wild berry fruits that swirl beneath an air of inner violet florals and lavender tones. Remarkably pretty from start to finish, the 2019 tapers off long and perfumed, leaving a sensation of liquid stone and the mouth watering for more. Don't come here for power and intensity; this beauty is built on elegance.
Rating: 95+ -
Wine Spectator
Open-textured and lacy, this red evokes strawberry, cherry, floral and mineral aromas and flavors, with a light touch of wild herbs. Subtle and juicy midpalate, with a long, resonant aftertaste. There's surprisingly good structure in the form of refined tannins. Best from 2027 through 2045.
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.