Winemaker Notes
Deep ruby red. Offers up aromas of well-ripened wild berries, blackberry preserves, tobacco leaf, and tanned leather. An expansive, generous palate displays a rich mouthfeel, developing into a lengthy finale marked by fruit liqueur.
Pairs perfectly with a wide range of meats, particularly game and boar, and with aged pecorino cheese.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Blueberries and spices with a touch of cedar and dried flowers. Medium- to full-bodied, showing firm, crisp, delineated tannins with a clean, tight finish. Drinkable now but will benefit from a couple of years in the bottle. Drink or hold.
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Vinous
The 2021 Brunello di Montalcino is hauntingly dark in the glass, with a spicy wave of dried cherries, clove and mentholated herbs tempting the senses. It is ripe in style with cooling acidity to elevate its red and black fruits. Lifted yet structured, the 2021 pinches at the cheeks with youthful tension as nuances of licorice fade.
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.