Winemaker Notes
Pair with thick porterhouse steak or rich fish such as sturgeon or grouper.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Wonderful youthful freshness and drive here. Cool, crunchy berry fruit, fresh thyme, and spice and leather aromas, and what a big impression on the palate. It is clean and classy with a touch of astringency, very fine tannins, and a long, complex finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Underbrush, red berry, scorched earth and dark spice aromas emerge in the glass. The structured, chewy palate offers mature black cherry, clove, ground pepper and star anise set in a firm framework of fine-grained tannins. Drink 2018–2028.
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James Suckling
A fruity, juicy red with dried-berry, strawberry and chocolate aromas and flavors. Full body with round, velvety tannins. Flavorful finish. The overripe character is a little dominating but it shows freshness. Drink now.
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Wine Spectator
A sweet core of cherry, leather and spice notes heralds this fresh, firm red. Balanced and long, echoing fruit and spice hints on the aftertaste. Best from 2018 through 2027.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2011 Tenute Silvio Nardi Brunello di Montalcino is an excellent ambassador of the decidedly warm vintage of mid-term age worthy wines. The wine's brilliant red fruit and perky palate pair it nicely with oven-baked, mildly seasoned pork tenderloin. Drinks well now. (Tasted: September 12, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
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.