Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Brunello Di Montalcino Giuseppe Tassi pours a medium ruby color and is a little closed on the nose initially, needing some coaxing before it really starts to sing. As it opens, it reveals seamless notes of cherry liqueur, mocha, licorice, and pine. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it’s long and elegant, with ripe tannins, pure concentration, great persistence, and outstanding depth. It has a bit of warmth on the finish, but it’s fantastically balanced and is a wine built for the long haul. Drink 2024-2045.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The organic Tassi 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Giuseppe Tassi has a dusty quality with petrichor and crushed stone. Those mineral tones frame a core of wild cherry, redcurrant, small forest berries, grilled herb and pressed blue flower. Tassi kicks it out of the ballpark with this very refined and elegant Brunello. The tannins are almost glossy or polished in a delicate, tactile manner.
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James Suckling
Attractive fruit character with ripe berries and plums as well as notes of spices, coffee beans and sandalwood. It’s broad on the palate with a medium to full body and a very fine texture to its tannins that in the end results in a chalky, chewy feeling. Even and long with walnut and cedar notes at the very end. From organically grown grapes. Better from 2026.
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Vinous
Dusty and floral, the 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Giuseppe Tassi opens with a burst of exotic spices and incense giving way to dried black cherries and hints of ground ginger. This sweeps across the palate with silky textures and ripe red berry fruits, all guided by a stream of cooling acidity.
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.