Winemaker Notes
Excellent with game, red meats and aged cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Delicate aromas of new leather, wild berry, chopped mint and a balsamic whiff of eucalyptus come together on this stunning wine. The palate is still youthfully restrained, but already offers juicy Marasca cherry, raspberry compote, star anise and a hint of truffle set against tightly wound, refined tannins. Bright acidity provides balance. It needs time to unwind and fully develop but promises to blossom into a stunner. Drink 2023–2038.
Cellar Selection -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted from barrel, the 2013 Brunello di Montalcino La Cerbaiola is a fine and delicate expression. The bouquet opens gracefully to show pressed violets, blanched almond, wild spice and crisp forest berry. Like most of Salvioni's wines, this newest release is all about those tiny details. All those miniature components come together to build volume and intensity as the wine settles firmly over the palate. This vintage is slightly more streamlined and thin, yet the polished intensity of the mouthfeel is satisfying and long regardless.
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.