Tassi Brunello di Montalcino 2016
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
I love the purity of fruit to this with black cherries, blackberries, plums and hints of citrus. It’s full-bodied with wonderfully integrated, fine tannins that melt into the wine. So long and persistent. Goes on for minutes. Try after 2024.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino has slightly sweet accents on the bouquet with candied cherry and red licorice Twizzler. Those immediate aromas subside and eventually cede to potting soil, blue flower, toasted nut and balsam herb. However, at the end of the day, this wine remains focused on those proverbial red fruit tones as opposed to heavier black fruit tones. This is always a very elegant quality for Brunello. Thanks to its acidic freshness, natural structure and ruby fruit, we're looking at a textbook Sangiovese from 2016, without too many extra trappings or distractions.
Other Vintages
2018-
Tasting
Panel -
James
Suckling -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker
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Tasting
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling
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.