Baricci Brunello di Montalcino 2017 (750ml)

 

Rated 94 Points by Vinous

 

With the first tilt of the glass, you know that this is not your average 2017 Brunello di Montalcino.  An enthralling bouquet of spiced citrus peels, roses, sour cherries, crushed rocks and animal musk keeps you at the edge of your seat.  This is remarkably pure and delicate, seeming to hover across the palate, yet delivering a vivid mix of ripe wild berries, salty minerals and purple-tinged florals.  Beneath, saturated tannins build, yet the expression remains fresh – almost mouthwatering, in fact – as sweet hints of plum and tobacco slowly fade.  While the Baricci family doesn’t market their wine as a cru, this is indeed 100% Montosoli fruit from one of the region's top winemaking families.  Bravo.

 

Rated 93 Points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

Proudly from Montosoli, the Baricci 2017 Brunello di Montalcino shows a generous and authentic personality with earthy tones, dried fruit, ripe cherry and roasted herb.  This warm-vintage wine is elegant and pure, although there is a meaty or smoky note that is part and parcel of the 2017 vintage.  This wine registers 15% alcohol and a thick, open-knit texture.  It could use a bit more fruit definition, and I would recommend a near or medium-term drinking window for this bottle.

 

Rated 93 Points by Decanter

 

The 2017 vintage is significant for this estate as it is the year founder Nello Baricci passed away at the age of 96.  His grandsons, Federico and Francesco Buffi are now at the helm.  Baricci’s Brunello needs a few swirls to unleash striking scents of berry compote, flint and smoke.  The palate is dense with berries – all cherry skin and pulp - and garden herbs.  It is well-framed by chewy tannins with a pulverised stone texture.  Though this shows its heat, there is an underlying lift.  The finish reveals a pleasant bitterness, rather than sweetness, which cleanses the mouth.

 

Rated 91 Points by Wine Spectator

 

Blood and iron flavors frame the earth- and cherry-filled core of this firm, dry red.  Though linear in profile, there is complexity here, offering a lively beam of acidity for lift.  Tips to the dry side on the finish.

 

Rated 90 Points by Wine Enthusiast

 

Aromas of underbrush, toasted nut and eucalyptus shape the nose along with whiffs of blue flower and coconut.  The warm, brawny palate offers dried cherry and licorice alongside the heat of evident alcohol.  Firm, close-grained tannins provide the backbone.  Give the tannins a few more years, then drink sooner rather than later to catch the remaining fruit richness.

 

Baricci Brunello di Montalcino 2017

 

TRADITION. HISTORY. EXPERIENCE. MONTALCINO. NELLO. MONTOSOLI. SANGIOVESE. FAMILY. FATIGUE. PASSION. BRUNELLO. EARTH. HANDS. WISDOM. CONSORTIUM. COURAGE. PATIENCE. ADA. GENERATIONS. CULTURE. PRECISION. RESPONSIBILITY. AWARENESS. RESPECT. LIFE.

 

Tasting Notes

 

Ruby red color, which tends to garnet red with ageing. A very complex and intense nose, with fleshy fruit aromas, followed by elegant faded violet and rose notes. The taste is powerful, juicy, with a pleasant vertical freshness and well integrated tannins. Long and fruity finish with lots of berries.

 

Food Pairings

 

Ideal with red roast meat, noble game and aged cheeses. Perfect also as a meditation wine. Best served at a temperature of about 18/20 °C, opening it 3 hours before drinking.

 

Characteristics

 

Colour:  Ruby red with shades of garnet

 

Bouquet:  Ethereal and complex with hints of red berries.

 

Taste:  Persistent aroma, important structure, elegant and alluring.

 

In the kitchen

 

Dishes rich in flavor with red meats, game, grilled, roasted mixed.  Hard cheeses.

 

Service

 

Uncork a few hours before drinking, serving at 18 ° in crystal balloon glasses.

 

Vineyards

 

The 6 small plots of vineyards, all located on the cru Montosoli, are adjacent to each other so that you can define them as a single body of a total of 5 hectares.  Colombaio is the only Farm, among those present on the Montosoli hill, to have vineyards solely in this area, a defining feature for the definition of typical wine and its relevance to the territory in which it is born. 

 

The orientation south / south-east of the rows of vines and their perfect exposure to sunlight throughout the day allows optimal ripeness of the grapes and is helped by a good temperature range with night temperatures cooler than other parts of Montalcino.

 

In the vineyards, mechanical and manual work call for considerable energy and hard work in order to avoid the use of herbicides and to implement all that is required to give the best care possible to the vines and the grapes.  This is the fruit of 80 years of experience and knowledge gained from generations of Baricci in the land of Montalcino.

 

A good wine comes from, above all, a great, wise and patient work in the vineyard, not just in the wine cellar and as grandfather Nello says “what you receive from the earth comes from all that you gave to the earth” and we can not argue with him on that.

 

The Production

 

The Harvest

 

Unlike in the past, with the changing climate, the harvest usually takes place the last week of September. It represents the final act after a long period of daily activities from early in the spring with constant and meticulous controls, initially of the tiny buds right through until you reach the ripe bunches in autumn.

 

The harvest is entirely manual and the grapes, before arriving in the cellar, are carefully viewed and a selection made. Prior to that, in order that they represent the best raw material that our land has to offers us, there are 3 selections made throughout the course of the summer to guarantee us that the wine comes only from the best fruits available. On average the harvest takes only 3 days and this short period of time therefore gives us the opportunity to assess and to seize the right moment for the collection (harvest) based on when there is the highest degree of maturity of the grapes.

 

Fermentation

 

Once in the winery, the grapes do their job organoleptic stainless steel tanks at controlled temperatures.  The complete fermentation usually takes less than 20 days, during which they are executed usual pumping.  From a labor without undue stress on the grapes we obtain the best fragrances and color typical of Sangiovese, the Ruby Red.  As well as all the other stages, the fermentation follows the same processes for decades, with the help of new technologies.  But use this only to succeed in a more precise and excellent for optimizing production processes.  The rest is in the hands of who is the author, who gives the impression.

 

Refinement

 

More than a century of tradition and passion teaches us the importance of the Oak casks for Sangiovese in Montalcino.  The fruit that grows from these plants is edgy, powerful, at times acerbic character.  That has need a timber that can make him obedient, smart, polite. 

 

Our basement has always been in our living rooms below, has oak barrels of medium size, from 20 to 40 HL.
 

The Brunello here will rest for about 36 months, the Rosso for just under a year.
 

The combination of wood type, magnitude and duration of the barrel aging is a must for us.  The glare and grain is the sign of our identity, we want to resist the new trend.  Freshness and balance for the Rosso, elegance and high drinkability for Brunello are the characteristics of the final process aging of our wines.

Total production makes around of 30.000 bottles per year, about 12.000 for Brunello, 18.000 for Rosso.

 

 

Baricci

 

The History

 

The company is located in the northern part of the territory of Montalcino, on the slope overlooking the city of Siena, at an altitude of 280 meters above sea level – It covers 12 hectares (5 of which are planted to Brunello) on the little Montosoli hill, considered for centuries the area of ​​excellence, quality product and high wine vocation.

He was born in 1955 when Bariccis, peasant family, after long years of sacrifice, physical and financial, are able to buy a small farm called Colombaio Montosoli.

At that time an unknown wine Brunello was produced in small quantities and only by a few enthusiasts.

Years pass and in 1967 In Baricci, along with a few other producers, he founded the “Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino” a free association of producers in order to protect, defend and promote that their wine whose reputation was growing more and more.

The first commercially Baricci Brunello is dated 1971 while the first bottle of Rosso di Montalcino is the year 1968.  Currently the grandsons Federico and Francesco carry on the family name, synonymous with tradition, passion and professionalism.  The support to the grandfather of the third generation is now a proof of employment opportunities in “upstream” of new generations and the continuation of an honest way of working and committed.

The cellar is equipped with stainless steel tanks and oak barrels from Slavonia.  The fermentation and aging faithfully follow the traditional rules that have made the famous Brunello around the world.  In fact, the wine remains in barrels for at least 3 years and is then aged for 8 months in bottle before being marketed in several European countries and in USA and Japan.  The average annual production is about 13000 and 18000 bottles of Brunello Rosso di Montalcino.
 

Baricci company is widely recognized as a typical, historical reality Montalcino.  One of the so-called “small producers” who have surely contributed to the great Brunello Di Montalcino.

 

Colombaio Montosoli

 

Montosoli.  An Identity, an exclusive area, a cru always recognizable.  An honor and a burden, 15 hectares of valuable land to the north of Montalcino set perfectly between the hill country and the plain Valdarbia.  A cool and breezy area, thanks to the hill of Montalcino that protects from the sirocco wind to the south and the crossroads between the winds from the north and the east.  A microclimate that tends towards the dry, rains that come from the Atlantic that bathe the “land of vines” (cit. In Baricci) with a mixture of marl, shale and quartz, clay, amalgamated in a paste derived from marine elements from the Pliocene era.

 

Stony ground, stingy and hard to cultivate, and it is these seemingly negative characteristics that make it ideal for the pure Sangiovese grape.  The rain will never stagnate.  It nourishes the roots of the vines and passes through.  A great potential for draining in wet years, a seasonal temperature not excessive in warmer ones.  A moisture naturally controlled by the winds, consistent and calibrated maturation thanks to the excellent summer temperature range and the freshness of the area.

 

Montosoli has been wine land for at least five centuries.  The relationship between this hill and the Sangiovese was rooted several hundred years before the success of Brunello in the World.  There are mentions of wine production ever since the creation of the first human settlement in the Villa, whose namesake is the same as the hill, built in 1555 by the famous architect Baldassare Peruzzi.  The “Farm Montosoli”, with cellar and oil mill, included several farms including the “Colombaio”, of which our family is now the owner.

 

Older generations of Montalcinesi already understood the potential of the hill.  The reputation of Montosoli as one of the best places for the production of wine in Montalcino was widespread as far back as two centuries ago, and Nello Baricci was aware of this since his youth.

 

In the 1950s the town of Montalcino was among the poorest of Italy and its population quickly passed from 12,000 people to 2,000.  In those years of total abandonment of the countryside and of emigration to big cities, it was Nello Baricci that chose, against the then current trend, to remain tied to this land.  It was 1955 Grandpa says: “I remember from very young hearing about the wine from Montosoli as the best in Montalcino.  Back then, every year the Italian Enoteca di Siena organized a Wine Competition and the Montesoli farm always won first prize.

 

When I decided to invest my hard-earned cash and move up from tenant to owner, I had no doubt about the place to choose for my property: Montosoli !. ”

 

No sooner said than done.  The property comprised the Podere Colombaio and its surrounding land, all located on the East / South East of the hill, the best for sun exposure, soil composition and microclimate.  The first farm to settle here and also the first to register it’s Brunello vineyards at the Chamber of Commerce of Siena, on 10th October 1966.

 

In 1967 he was among the founding members of the Consortium of Brunello di Montalcino, a free association of producers, of which Nello Baricci was vice-president for several years and later a member of the Board of Directors.

 

In 60 years of history the union Baricci / Montosoli has become so consolidated to become one entity between man and nature.

 

“The wine must be the truth” (Cit. Stephen Wong), the important thing is that it represents the ultimate expression of the bond that unites it to the territory where it was born and we are confident that Baricci firmly believes in this statement.

 

Nello Baricci

 

Born in Montalcino (SI) 26 May 1921

Son of a Montalcino wine farming family

Married to Ada in 1946

Founder of the Colombaio Montosoli Farm in 1955

First Member of the Montalcino Brunello Consortium in 1967

First Rosso di Montalcino produced in 1968

First Brunello di Montalcino produced in 1971

First official DOCG label received in 1980

Awarded Best Wine at the International Winemakers Consortium

in Siena with the Rosso 1984

First 3 Bicchieri Gambero Rosso with the Brunello 1983

Diploma Gran Menzione with the Brunello 1988

Diploma Gran with the Brunello 1989

Silver Medal at Vintaly with the Brunello 1990

Diploma Gran with the Brunello 1995

Diploma Gran with the Brunello 1996

 

 

Rated 91 Points by Wine Spectator

 

Blood and iron flavors frame the earth- and cherry-filled core of this firm, dry red.  Though linear in profile, there is complexity here, offering a lively beam of acidity for lift.  Tips to the dry side on the finish.

 

 

 

Rated 90 Points by Wine Enthusiast

 

Aromas of underbrush, toasted nut and eucalyptus shape the nose along with whiffs of blue flower and coconut.  The warm, brawny palate offers dried cherry and licorice alongside the heat of evident alcohol.  Firm, close-grained tannins provide the backbone.  Give the tannins a few more years, then drink sooner rather than later to catch the remaining fruit richness.