Winemaker Notes
Aromas of red plum, cherry, and kirsch with hints of flowers. The palate is lush and silky with lingering notes of cherry, herbs, and mineral.
Professional Ratings
-
Vinous
The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino takes its time opening in the glass, as a charming mix of crushed violets, dusty lavender and black currants form its understated bouquet. It’s soft-textured and round on the palate, with potent red fruits and cooling mineral tones that give way to a slight herbal-peppery tinge toward the close. This finishes grippy and savory in style, yet with residual acids that help to maintain fantastic balance, as blue- and purple-tinged inner florals slowly fade. The 2018 is an understated beauty, yet it will require patience to come fully into focus.
-
James Suckling
Savory and juicy with aromas of dried herbs, currants, cherries, olives and bark. It’s medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins and a bright, succulent finish.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Voliero 2018 Brunello di Montalcino reveals a pleasant, albeit simple presentation of cherry, dried raspberry, grilled herb and crushed stone. There are background hints of licorice, rusty metal and tarry smoke that add a veiling of complexity and depth. However, the wine remains accessible overall, and it's probably best to drink it over the next five years or so, while that primary fruit is still fresh.
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.