Italy · Tuscany · Montalcino (province of Siena)
Brunello di Montalcino DOCG
Tuscany's most powerful and long-lived Sangiovese: a firmly structured, high-acid, high-tannin red of red and black cherry lifted by violet, dried herb and licorice, built by long oak-cask ageing to develop dried cherry, leather, balsamic, tobacco and forest-floor with time. Traditionally raised in large Slavonian oak botti, giving a savoury, transparent expression of the grape.
Terroir
A mosaic of soils across the Montalcino hill: friable galestro (schistous clay-marl) and hard albarese (compact limestone-marl) on the higher slopes, with more clay, sand and even marine deposits lower down and to the south. Galestro drains freely and pushes aromatic complexity; albarese holds water and lends structure and acidity.
An isolated hilltop territory rising to around 560 m at the town of Montalcino, ringed by three river valleys (Ombrone, Asso, Orcia) and dominated to the south by the 1,700 m bulk of Monte Amiata. Vineyards sit roughly 150–500 m, with the loftier, cooler northern slopes giving more perfume and the warmer, earlier southern slopes toward Amiata giving power.
Montalcino is the warmest and driest corner of Tuscany: Monte Amiata casts a rain shadow that deflects summer storms, and warm maritime air reaches up from the Tyrrhenian coast some 40 km west. That warmth ripens late Sangiovese (here the Sangiovese Grosso clone, 'Brunello') more fully and reliably than the rest of Tuscany, the basis for a 100% Sangiovese wine of unusual concentration and ageworthiness.
Structure tendencies
- body
- medium-plus to full
- tannin
- medium-plus to high
- acidity
- high
- alcohol
- medium to high
- finish
- long
tendencies in prose, as read by critics/consensus — not measured ordinals
Classic descriptors
red cherry
in your cellar: 3 bottlesChâteau Léoville-Poyferré 2005Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010Massolino Barolo 2016black cherry
in your cellar: 15 bottlesLes Forts de Latour 2017Château Pontet-Canet 2021Château Feytit-Clinet 2015Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2016Château Léoville-Poyferré 2005Château Léoville-Poyferré 2010Mayacamas Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon 2019L'Ecole No. 41 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2020Château Larmande 2005Bodegas Manzanos Gran Reserva Rioja 2015Château Gloria 2020Château Laroque 2022Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010Massolino Barolo 2016Château Pontet-Canet 2022plum
in your cellar: 14 bottlesLes Forts de Latour 2017Château Pontet-Canet 2021Château Feytit-Clinet 2015Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2016Château Léoville-Poyferré 2005Mayacamas Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon 2019Château Larmande 2005Bodegas Manzanos Gran Reserva Rioja 2015Château Gloria 2022Château Gloria 2020Château Laroque 2022Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010Massolino Barolo 2016Château Pontet-Canet 2022violet
in your cellar: 13 bottlesLes Forts de Latour 2017Château Pontet-Canet 2021Château Feytit-Clinet 2015Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2016Château Léoville-Poyferré 2010Mayacamas Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon 2019L'Ecole No. 41 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2020Bodegas Manzanos Gran Reserva Rioja 2015Château Gloria 2022Château Laroque 2022Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010Massolino Barolo 2016Château Pontet-Canet 2022dried herbs
in your cellar: 8 bottlesMayacamas Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon 2019L'Ecole No. 41 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2020Château Larmande 2005Bodegas Manzanos Gran Reserva Rioja 2015Château Laroque 2022Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010Massolino Barolo 2016Château Pontet-Canet 2022potpourri
in your cellar: 2 bottlesChâteau Léoville-Poyferré 2005Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010forest floor
in your cellar: 7 bottlesLes Forts de Latour 2017Château Léoville-Poyferré 2005Château Larmande 2005Bodegas Manzanos Gran Reserva Rioja 2015Château Gloria 2022Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010Château Pontet-Canet 2022saline
in your cellar: 8 bottlesChâteau Pontet-Canet 2021Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2016Château Gloria 2020Château Laroque 2022Domaine Servin Chablis 1er Cru "Forêts" 2022Max Ferd. Richter Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Trocken GG 2023Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010Château Pontet-Canet 2022baking spice
in your cellar: 9 bottlesLes Forts de Latour 2017Château Pontet-Canet 2021Château Feytit-Clinet 2015Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2016Château Léoville-Poyferré 2005Mayacamas Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon 2019Bodegas Manzanos Gran Reserva Rioja 2015Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010Massolino Barolo 2016licorice
in your cellar: 9 bottlesChâteau Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2016Château Léoville-Poyferré 2005Château Léoville-Poyferré 2010Mayacamas Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon 2019Château Gloria 2022Château Gloria 2020Château Laroque 2022Massolino Barolo 2016Château Pontet-Canet 2022cedar
in your cellar: 9 bottlesLes Forts de Latour 2017Château Pontet-Canet 2021Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2016Château Léoville-Poyferré 2005Château Léoville-Poyferré 2010L'Ecole No. 41 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2020Château Gloria 2022Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010Château Pontet-Canet 2022dried cherry
in your cellar: 3 bottlesBodegas Manzanos Gran Reserva Rioja 2015Château Gloria 2022Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010leather
in your cellar: 7 bottlesLes Forts de Latour 2017Château Léoville-Poyferré 2005Château Larmande 2005Bodegas Manzanos Gran Reserva Rioja 2015Château Laroque 2022Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010Massolino Barolo 2016balsamic
in your cellar: 1 bottleCastelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010tobacco
in your cellar: 13 bottlesLes Forts de Latour 2017Château Pontet-Canet 2021Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2016Château Léoville-Poyferré 2005Château Léoville-Poyferré 2010Mayacamas Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon 2019Château Larmande 2005Bodegas Manzanos Gran Reserva Rioja 2015Château Gloria 2022Château Gloria 2020Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2010Massolino Barolo 2016Château Pontet-Canet 2022Dried cherry, leather and balsamic are the classical markers of mature Brunello — the reward of the mandated long ageing. Soil-linked terms (galestro, albarese) are classical tasting associations, not claims of literal mineral uptake (see docs/wine-pedagogy.md §3).
Classification
Italy's first DOCG (decree 1980, on the back of the 1966 DOC). The wine's modern identity was effectively invented by the Biondi-Santi family in the late 1800s, who isolated Sangiovese Grosso and bottled it to age. The Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino governs the denomination; a separate DOC, Rosso di Montalcino, takes younger or declassified fruit.
grapes — 100% Sangiovese (the local Sangiovese Grosso clone, 'Brunello'). No other grape is permitted.. aging — Minimum ~5 years before release: at least 2 years in oak and at least 4 months in bottle, and the wine may not be released before 1 January of the fifth year following the harvest. Riserva requires a sixth year (released 1 January of the sixth year after harvest) with at least 6 months in bottle.. Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino (production code / disciplinare)