The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva has blossomed beautifully over the past year, savory and intense, with an enticing bouquet of cedar dust, savory herbs, crushed rocks, underbrush and wild strawberries. It’s feminine and cool-toned in feel, with soft textures and a pretty inner sweetness up front as wild berry fruits are guided by juicy acidity and a saline mineral staining forms toward the close. The finish is perfumed and exotic with hints of blood orange and violet inner florals that cascade across with a sensation of liquid stone and a coating of sweet tannins. Majestic and sensual, the 2018 Riserva is perhaps the top wine of the vintage. — acclaim for 2018 Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino Riserva from Vinous, Dec 2024

Showing a thick, velvety texture and more aggressive tannins, the Poggio di Sotto 2012 Brunello di Montalcino comes from a dry and hot growing season. The vintage saw lower yields as a result. The bouquet is more compact and harder too, with dark berry fruits, earth, medicinal herb and crushed stone. Both the 2012 and the 2011 vintages share similarities. But I thought the 2011 vintage was a little bit more interesting compared to this wine. Poggio di Sotto pulled leaves in 2012 and in the 2017 vintage, and this turned out to be a mistake because both vintages were quite hot and the ripening fruit remained exposed to the strong sunlight. That mistake was not made in 2015. — acclaim for 2012 Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino from Wine Advocate, Nov 2024

The 2011 vintage represents the first growing season farmed by its current owner, Claudio Tipa, and the ColleMassari team. The previous owner, Piero Palmucci, started the season by dropping fruit, and this helped push ripening forward. However, this vintage is remembered for the hard work required to bring clean fruit into the winery. "Each cluster took about five minutes to trim and clean," says winemaker Luca Marrone: "This was one of the most expensive vintages ever because of all the cutting required." The 2011 Brunello di Montalcino has a sweet theme that comes from hot weather and sirocco winds that blew hot like a hair dryer throughout the summer. The vines were left with ripening fruit and no leaves, and some of the berries dried on the vine. The grapes were completely destemmed to avoid bitterness. (Since 2014, the winery has been working with whole berries.) This wine shows surprising freshness, nonetheless, and it is in terrific form today. There is a tannic pinch at the end, but the wine remains ample and generous in terms of mouthfeel. It's not overripe per se, but it is quite broad.” — acclaim for 2011 Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino from Wine Advocate, Nov 2024