Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A rich magenta hue, the 2019 Brunello Di Montalcino Poggio Al Granchio is a serious wine that amplifies things further and will need some decanting if opening now. Forward with great aromas of graphite, black cherry liqueur, cracked pepper, sage, and porcini, it’s full-bodied yet weightless on the palate and has phenomenal concentration while remaining elegant all the way through, it offers plush, velvety tannins and mineral undercurrents while retaining wonderful purity and a seamless texture. This stunning wine deserves several years in cellar.
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Wine Spectator
A deep well of blackberry, black currant and cherry fruit marks this succulent red, with accents of wild rosemary and mineral. Well-delineated and complex, echoing the fruit and savory notes on the long finish. Shows superb balance and harmony. Best from 2027 through 2043.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From a site with schistic galestro clay soils, the 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Poggio al Granchio is definitely the most complete and complex of these new releases from 2019 by Val di Suga. Fruit comes from an 18-hectare vineyard located at 430 to 450 meters in elevation. The wine offers more oozing richness and concentration in line with the character of the vintage with sweet cherry, blackberry, toasted cumin seed and pressed rose. This estate does a good job of maintaining the freshness of Sangiovese.
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James Suckling
Pretty cherries and chocolate with some violets that follow through to a medium body with fine tannins and an orange-peel finish. Refined and pretty. Drink or hold.
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.