Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This impressive vineyard designate Brunello delivers buoyant tones of cherry cola, mesquite and balsam notes. There’s a direct and immediate nature to the aromas, followed by bright acidity and silky tannins that leave a lasting impression. This is a very beautiful wine that would pair with meats and oven-roasted pasta dishes.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Emerges from the glass with a soft, expansive core of fruit, caressing the palate with dark red fruit, sweet spices and flowers. The wine's inner perfume becomes more expressive with air, yet this too looks to be a Brunello best suited to mid-term drinking. In 2005 the Manachiara isn't quite the powerhouse it is in most vintages, but it compensates for that with its beautiful sense of harmony.
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.