Winemaker Notes
Taking its name from an aromatic wild herb, San Polino Brunello di Montalcino Helichrysum comes from the highest vineyards on the San Polino site. It is always elegant, opulent and structured.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Ripe boysenberries, tar, chestnuts, orange peel, dried cherries and tobacco. There’s a beautiful interplay between the more subtle, citrus notes and darker red fruit, and nothing’s out of kilt to the ripeness. Lots of powerful tannins take the full-bodied palate by storm, coating the mouth in layers of intense but fragrant red fruit and steamrolling this Brunello to a long, chewy conclusion. This is a contrastive wine ,built on the foundation of an intricate, wild tannin backbone, but framed in a vibrant and transparent package.
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Decanter
Helichrysum is crafted from San Polino's high-altitude vineyard in the southeast. With views towards Monte Amiata, it receives winds from the Sahara. The summer days are hot, giving mature sweet fruit with lots of structure, while the nights cool down substantially, helping to preserve heady perfumes. This is replete with fragrant florals, chamomile, thyme and fennel. It's quite brooding on the palate, the dense fruit framed by terracotta-like tannins. It boasts a long, succulent and saline finish. Drinking Window 2023 - 2035
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of fragrant purple flower, new leather, underbrush and mature plum form the nose. The concentrated palate doles out blackberry jam, orange rind, licorice and tobacco framed in densely woven, close-grained tannins that leave a firm, drying finish. Drink 2023–2030.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The San Polino 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Helichrysum shows loads of dark fruit and depth. If the estate's other Brunello from this vintage (both of them 8,000-bottle yields) is all about the red fruit, the Helichrysum embraces black fruit aromas of prune and plum instead, giving the wine a heavier center of gravity, more determination and momentum. This warm vintage would make a fantastic pairing to the classic Tuscan bistecca alla Fiorentina.
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.