Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
A super-complex wine with aromas of spices, dried cherries, wild strawberries, potpourri, orange zest, smoky wood and earth. Full-bodied with velvety tannins. Energy and graceful harmony in the aftertaste, with a savory hint of black olives. Almost drinkable now, but best from 2027.
-
Vinous
The 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Madonna del Piano has a brooding bouquet of crushed ashen stones, sweet exotic spices, violet pastille and radiant black cherries. It’s surprisingly cool-toned and sleek with tart red berry fruits and a stern core of minerality. With exceptional length and freshness, the 2020 blends rounded tannins with hints of tangerine and raspberry. The 2020 is unlike any Riserva Madonna del Piano I’ve ever encountered; despite its underlying power, its energy and vibrancy are truly impressive. This stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the 2016 and 2019 vintages, which was no easy feat given the challenges of the 2020 season.
-
Wine Spectator
This red is dark and supple, featuring aromas and flavors of black currant, blackberry, black cherry, licorice, iron and leather. As this evolves on the palate, a black pepper accent emerges. Overall, this is balanced and long, with a complex aftertaste.
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.