Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Tasting Panel
Fresh nose; smooth and elegant with earthy and articulate flavors of berries and spice. From a very good—not great—vintage, it’s still beautifully balanced and long/
-
James Suckling
This is a beautiful Brunello that delivers juicy and delicious fruit with cherries and hints of spices. Full body, firm and silky tannins and a long, chewy finish. Gorgeous length.
-
Wine Spectator
Enticing aromas and flavors of cherry, leather, iron and tobacco mark this structured red. Balanced and firm, with a long and tannic, yet fresh, finish.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tenute Silvio Nardi's 2013 Brunello di Montalcino is a balanced and complete wine. It opens to pretty color saturation and a mid-weight style that is perhaps a touch darker and more concentrated compared to some of the estate's neighbors in this beautiful appellation. Dark fruit flavors of dark cherry and plum segue to spice, campfire ash, cola and wild rose. The wine sees a long oak-aging period, with 12 months in smaller tonneaux followed by 18 months in botti grandi. This elaborate process bodes well for the future longevity of the wine. In fact, I would definitely recommend putting this bottle aside for a few more years before popping the cork.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Aromas suggesting red woodland berry, crushed herb, blue flower and a whiff of exotic spice float from the glass. The tightly wound linear palate is ethereal and still primary, offering sour cherry and licorice alongside austere close-grained tannins that grip the finish.
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.