95 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate - "Fossacolle's 2010 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is another stellar wine from a stellar vintage. This Brunello opens to dark concentration and deep ruby highlights that add to the wine's overall weight and importance. The bouquet is composed of a fine aromatic embroidery with cherry, spice, tobacco and grilled herb. What distinguishes this wine in the end is its superb texture. This Riserva walks a fine line between elegance and power, and it does a great job of delivering both. That density and determination bodes well for its future aging potential." - Monica Larner (Mar 2016)
93 Points - James Suckling - "A powerful, new-wave style with excellent concentration of fruit and loads of new oak but I think it will come together with time. Full body, chewy tannins and a long finish. This is a more blockbuster style, though it must be said I prefer a little something a little more harmonious at this stage. Better in 2018." - (October 1st, 2015)
Winemakers Notes - The bunches are rigorously selected for quality and hand-picked into small boxes. Following a gentle pressing, the must undergoes a pre-fermentation at low temperatures in steel and wood fermenters. The alcoholic fermentation takes place rigorously under temperature controlled conditions for 22 days at 30-32°C.
An extended maceration and frequent pump-overs, punch-downs and delestages optimize the extraction from the skins. The malolactic fermentation is completed in concrete vats before the wine’s ageing phase, for a total of 24 months in 25 hl oak casks and in 225 litre French oak barriques.
Subsequently the wine matures for another year in glass-lined cement vats. A mere static settling, but no filtration, complete the wine making process before its final bottling and its 6 months later release into the market.
Of intense ruby color, our Brunello shows on the palate alluring aromas of very ripe red berries and delicate spices, while the full body is gratifying and persistent, with outstanding minerality. Remarkable tannins, soft and creamy in texture, confer concentration and aging potential to this wine, a real “Cru” of great distinctiveness.
- Grape: 100% Sangiovese grosso.
- Fermentation and maceration: 18 days
- Ageing: Aged in French and Slavonian oak casks of 25 hl for 24 months and in second usage French barriques of 225 l; in concrete vats for the last 12 months
