Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2009 Brunello di Montalcino Voliero is a soft and corporeal expression with voluptuous contours of ripe fruit, blackberry, licorice and dark espresso bean. The wine shows its oak imprinting well (it ages 36 months in barrel), without feeling too heavy or massive. The obvious reason is because the wine shows the natural pulp and richness to absorb those spicy, toasted overtones. Although the wine looms large in terms of its opulence, the results are balanced and pristine. There's a youthful snap to the tannins that will carry the wine forward over its future aging evolution. Drink: 2017-2028.
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James Suckling
A rich, delicious wine with lots of plum and orange-peel character. Full body with velvety tannins and a long, flavorful finish. A new producer for me. Very well done. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
An earthy wine, it opens with aromas of black and red berries, toast, cooking spices and meat juices along with a whiff of farmyard. The palate delivers fleshy black cherry and raspberry in the forefront along with notes of cinnamon-spice, mocha and sage, all supported by a solid tannic backbone.
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.