Winemaker Notes
The 2017 Talenti Brunello di Montalcino is an intense ruby red color with orange shimmers. It has a wide bouquet that is slightly spicy. It tastes is full, soft, velvety and intense. The tannins are elegant and sweet.
This wine is particularly suited to accompany red meat, game, cold meat and aged-cheese.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dark-berry and cherry character with bark and mahogany in both the nose and palate. It’s full-bodied with integrated tannins. Linear and tight with a long finish. Needs time to open and soften. Try after 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Talenti 2017 Brunello di Montalcino shows a lot of soft and ripe fruit with blackberry and cherry confit at the front. Spice, leather, crushed flower and potting soil follow in due course and so does the wine's impactful 15% alcohol.
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Wine Spectator
This red delivers an intense beam of cherry and red berry fruit notes, shaded by tobacco, sanguine and leafy vegetal flavors. Has a bright structure, but finishes on the dry side, revealing a spicy aftertaste. Best from 2025
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.