Col D'Orcia Brunello Di Montalcino 2018 (750ml)

 

Rated 94 Points by Wine Spectator

 

This promising Brunello is hallmarked by pretty cherry, strawberry, currant and floral aromas and flavors.  Starts out elegant and lacy, then the dense matrix of tannins emerges, giving different character to the long finish.  Reveals wild herb and mineral notes that add depth.

 

Rated 93 Points by Decanter

 

Santiago Marone Cinzano explains that in 2018, délestage played a key role, especially over extended periods of 8-12 hours, allowing delicate skins to macerate with a reduced amount of juice in order to coax out sufficient concentration.  Beautifully weighted, it's full yet agile with enough stuffing to carry it over the next decade.  Above all, it underscores the freshness of the vintage: fragrances reveal themselves slowly but are very much in the floral spectrum, with cherry and thyme blossoms lifted by traces of pepper.  Crunchy red plum and succulent cherry flavours take over on palate, where youthful grippy tannins need some time to yield.

 

Rated 93 Points by James Suckling

 

Roasted herbs, wild cherries, thyme and dried mushrooms on the nose.  Medium to full body with silky yet firm tannins supporting supple and fresh layers.  Excellent length with a delectably savory character.

 

Rated 93 Points by Vinous

 

Masses of crushed cherries and cloves give way to nuances of spiced citrus peels and cedar as the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino comes to life in the glass.  This is round and pliant on the palate, with a balanced inner sweetness contrasting its mineral-tinged acids and tart wild berry fruits.  Grippy tannins mount toward the close, yet fail to slow the 2018’s momentum, as notes of salted licorice are left to resonate under an air of dried roses.  This is a deep and characterful rendition of Col d'Orcia’s Brunello, but patience will be required to unlock all of its charms.

 

Rated 93 Points by Jeb Dunnuck

 

Full and enveloping with purple floral perfume, the 2018 Brunello Di Montalcino is lush with violets, blue fruit, and black raspberry and leather.  This moves seamlessly to the palate, where it takes on even more depth, with iron richness, meat, red cherry, raspberry, cedar, and fresh soil.  A balanced wine for its style, it is a lovely expression where more warmth is not needed.  Best after 2025.

 

Rated 93 Points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

A certified organic wine, the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino has dark fruit, bold cherry, earthy notes and a hint of black olive or scorched earth.  The wine is generous and round in terms of mouthfeel with a streamlined mid-palate and plenty of Sangiovese acidity to keep things lively and fresh.  The tannins are well managed and silky.

 

Col D'Orcia Brunello Di Montalcino D.O.C.G. 2018

 

Organic

 

Main Features

 

Colour:  Ruby red with violet hues. 

 

Bouquet:  Intense, broad and complex, with hints of red fruits such as cherry and blackberry combined with vanilla and woody notes from the oak.

 

Taste:  Full-bodied wine, excellent structure, strong and balanced.  The tannins are soft and ripe and lead to a long, endless and fruity aftertaste.

 

Alcohol Content:  14.5 %

 

Serving Temperature:  18° C

 

Pour the wine into ample glasses

 

Production Information

 

Production Area:  Montalcino – Siena – on the Sant’Angelo hill overlooking the Orcia River, facing South-South/West and exposed to sunrays all day long.  Average height 300 m. above sea level.

 

Weather Conditions:  Winter rains in the seasonal average with some snowfalls that helped compensate the water shortage in the soil.  The beginning of the spring was mild with occasional rains.  June and July were hot.  Light and intermittent rains during the first three weeks of August with average temperatures of 25°C.  During the first week of September the temperatures raised 30°C. with some rainy days.  The harvest started around mid September. 

 

Grapes:  Particular clones of Sangiovese, selected by Col d’Orcia.  Manual harvest with rigorous selection of the best bunches in the vineyard at first and subsequently on a selection table in the cellar.  Vintage 2018 yield: 39 q/ha, against the maximum yield allowed by the Protocol Regulation: 80 q/ha.

 

Vinification:  Fermentation on the skins for about 18-20 days, at controlled temperature below 28° C.  in 150 hl wide and shallow stainless steel tanks, designed and built in order to extract tannins and colour efficiently but delicately.

 

Ageing:  4 Years, 2 of which in 25-50 and 75 hl oak casks from Slavonia and Allier followed by at least 12 Months of refinement in the bottles placed in storage at controlled temperature.

 

Winemaking

 

Col d'Orcia wines are estate produced and bottled, with grapes grown mostly on the estate and partly in surrounding farms whose vineyards are supervised by Col d’Orcia during the whole productive cycle.  The high density of planting, the choice of the rootstock suitable for the characteristics of each piece of land, the use of highly selected clones and an overall attention to the characteristics of each single vineyard ensure a limited production per plant aimed at achieving high quality grapes, healthy, concentrated and rich in colour and tannins.  Farming techniques include grass mulching, cluster thinning at the “veraison” and perfect ripening of the grapes on the plant.

Attention to detail characterizes the wine making process at Col d'Orcia, the same given to every other step of the production cycle.  The harvest, carried out exclusively by hand, is regulated by precise analysis in order to ensure the optimal phenolic maturation of every bunch collected: a sorting table at the entrance of the cellar allows an even more detailed selection.

Fermentation is conducted in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks shaped so that the surface of contact between juice and skins ensures optimal delicate extraction of the high quality ingredients such as polyphenols and colouring matters.  Ageing in wood takes place in Slavonian and selected French oaks.  The size of the barrels and the time of ageing vary according to the characteristics of each batch.  For some wines ageing in wood can take as long as 4 years.  Finally the bottles are kept for further ageing on the estate until their refinement is completed.  Therefore we can really state that each bottle of our wine is handcrafted.

 

Cellar

 

The wine-making cellar, made out of the original premises of the farm, has steel tanks with controlled temperature and capacity of 8.400 hectolitres.  The ageing cellar, built in the year 1990 and perfectly included in the surrounding Mediterranean environment, has Slavonian and Allier oak barrels whose capacity is 25,50,75,150 hectolitres for a total amount of 7000 hectolitres and no. 800 barriques for a total amount of 1.800 hectolitres.

 

The "Terroir" of Val d'Orcia and Montalcino

 

The estate is located on the southern slope of the Montalcino territory and is an integral part of the Orcia Valley, the Val d’Orcia.

 

The Val d’Orcia is a unique territory that was declared part of the Patrimony of Humanity in the year 2004.  UNESCO explains as follows the reasons for this:

 

“The Val d’Orcia is an exceptional reflection of the way the landscape was rewritten in pre-renaissance times to reflect the ideals of good government and to create an aesthetically pleasing picture celebrated by painters from the Siennese school.  The Val d’Orcia has come to be seen as icon of the landscape which has profoundly influenced the development of landscape thinking”.  On the hill overlooking the Orcia River, where the vineyards are planted, you can still today see some very old olive trees planted in rows.  They have survived for more than 4 centuries and testify the uniqueness of the microclimate on the Col d’Orcia hill.  Already 400 years ago this part of Montalcino was an agricultural exploitation thanks to the particularly favorable conditions of soil and climate.

The vineyards are located on the southern slope of the Montalcino territory, on hilly lands and extend over 540 hectares, from the Orcia River to the village of Sant’Angelo in Colle, at about 450 metres over sea level.  Its position is extremely favorable as it faces south directly, and it is also protected by the barrier of Mount Amiata (1.750 meters) against meteorological events such as floods or hail, and to the mild climate coming from the Tyrrhenian coast, in the west, where the sea is some 35 km away.

 

The nature of the soil is undoubtedly favorable to grape growing, with fundamentally loose grounds, poor in clay and rich in limestone and inert materials.

 

The area is not affected by fog, ice or late frost, whereas the frequent breezes guarantee the best conditions for the vine health conditions.  Its climate is typically Mediterranean, with limited rainfalls concentrated in the months of March, April, November and December.

 

The high number of sunny days throughout the whole vegetative season ensures a gradual and complete grape ripening.  The vineyards facing south and the particular nature of the soil convey notes of structure and elegance to the Brunello produced on this side of Montalcino.

 

 

Col d'Orcia Winery

 

Montalcino

 

Welcome to Col d'Orcia,

 

Organic Producer of Brunello

 

Col d’Orcia literally means the hill overlooking the Orcia River.  The Orcia River marks the South West border of the Brunello di Montalcino territory and the name of the farm is intrinsically linked to the physical location were the vineyards are planted.  It is the mission of Col d’Orcia to produce the best possible wines that the exceptional combination of soil and climate of this part of Montalcino can achieve.

 

Col d'Orcia Winery, organic island in Montalcino

 

At Col d’Orcia, for many years now, we have always ascribed high value to the natural environment in which we operate.

 

For this reason, in the year 2010 we took the decision of submitting to the organic farming certification process in order to become the largest organic wine producing farm in the whole of Tuscany.  Since August 27, 2010 the whole estate including vineyards, olive groves, other fields and even the gardens are farmed following exclusively organic agricultural practices.

 

We are very proud of this achievement and we can rightfully define Col d’Orcia as an organic island in Montalcino.

 

History

 

Col d’Orcia is one of the oldest established wineries of Montalcino and is very much part of the history of Brunello.  Among the most notable contributions of Col d’Orcia to the fame of Brunello ….. 

The following is an extract from the article by Antonio Galloni on the Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Poggio al Vento by Col d’Orcia:

 

“Col d’Orcia is one of Montalcino’s most historic wineries.  The estate’s modern-day lineage goes back to at least 1890, when records show the Franceschi family of Florence purchased the property, then known as Fattoria di Sant’Angelo in Colle.  As early as 1933 Fattoria di Sant’Angelo in Colle presented its Brunelli at the Wine Exhibition of Siena, one of the first trade shows in Italy, decades before Brunello would become a prized, world-class wine. 

 

Brothers Leopoldo and Stefano Franceschi inherited the property and subsequently divided their holdings in 1958.  The terms of the separation prohibited the brothers from using the existing Fattoria di Sant’Angelo in Colle name.  Stefano Franceschi named his farm Col d’Orcia (hill above Orcia) after the river that runs through the property.  Stefano Franceschi later married into the royal family of the future King of Spain Juan Carlos.  He and his wife had no children, and in 1973 Stefano Franceschi sold his property to the Cinzano family of Piedmont.  The Cinzano family was active in the spirits business, and used their extensive sales network to distribute the early vintages of Col d’Orcia. 

At the time of its purchase by the Cinzanos, Col d’Orcia was planted with a variety of crops, as was common, including wheat, tobacco, olives and grapes.  One of the main buildings is in fact the mill of the old Fattoria di Sant’Angelo in Colle. 

 

In 1973 there were just a few hectares dedicated to grapes, but planting expanded during this time under the leadership of Count Alberto Marone Cinzano and reached 70 hectares by the early 1980s.

 

In 1992 Marone Cinzano’s son Francesco took over and continued to increase plantings to the current level of 140 hectares, of which 108 are Brunello-designated vineyards, making Col d’Orcia the third largest owner of Brunello vineyards in Montalcino.”

 

 

Rated 94 Points by Wine Spectator

 

This promising Brunello is hallmarked by pretty cherry, strawberry, currant and floral aromas and flavors.  Starts out elegant and lacy, then the dense matrix of tannins emerges, giving different character to the long finish.  Reveals wild herb and mineral notes that add depth.