2020 Brunello di Montalcino
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Tasting notes
More open-knit than the 2019, the 2020 Brunello Di Montalcino Montosoli offers ripe aromatics of mocha, baked cherries, crushed flowers, and woodsy earth, with a sense of depth that reads immediately. The palate is medium to full-bodied and saturating, with ripe tannins, mouthwatering sapidity, and a broad-shouldered finish that stays balanced, and while fleshy, never feels hot. Drink this expressive Montosoli over the coming 15-20 years. Drink 2026-2046. The wines for this report were tasted at the winery on Montosoli. Baricci is one of the estate’s most important voices on the hill, with six hectares of the 25-hectare Montosoli zone spread across seven distinct parcels. This footprint allows the team to work row by row and highlight the subtle subdivisions of the site, with younger vines from the more fertile, lower-altitude parcels going into the Rosso di Montalcino. The Brunello comes from the marine sedimentary soils surrounded by clay, while the Riserva is selected from the highest point of the hill. In 2020, they were not able to produce Riserva due to low yields from this section of the vineyard, where berry size was also very small, averaging 1.5 grams per berry. Annual production typically hovers around 18,000 bottles, although in 2020 they made closer to 15,000 due to extremely low yields. A new cellar is currently under construction and is scheduled to be operational for the 2026 harvest.
Critic scores
Average Score
Walter Speller, jancisrobinson.com
Eric Guido, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Concentrated mid ruby. Deep, brooding but not open on the nose yet. Hints of black tea leaves. Compact, concentrated cherry slowly unfurling on the palate. Long aromatic cherry fruit with long chewy tannins. Complex and ageworthy. (WS)
The 2020 Brunello di Montalcino opens slowly in the glass, dark and earthy at first, gaining freshness as a cascade of violets and lavender accentuate red plums and hints of spice. It opens with a balanced inner sweetness offset by mineral-inflected red berries and brisk acidity carried over a wave of pure silk. The 2020 leaves a note of sour citrus, adding mouth-watering quality, classically formed tannins and a bitter blackberry tinge that keeps the taster going back for more. This comes across as classic in style despite the warm vintage.
About the producer
Established by Nello Baricci in 1966, Baricci is one of Montalcino’s founding producers. The estate’s small five-hectare plot is situated exclusively on the Montosoli hill in the north of Montalcino – renowned for producing distinctly elegant and aromatically complex Brunello.