Fattoria dei Barbi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2011

Wine Enthusiast 90 points - Red berry, iris, chopped herb and culinary spice aromas come together in the glass. The round approachable palate offers mature cherry, raspberry, pipe tobacco and star anise framed in lithe tannins. Drink through 2023..Kerin O'Keefe, May/2017

Wine Advocate 94 points - Fattoria dei Barbi’s 2011 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva shows thick lines and excellent composure. The warm 2011 vintage tends to offer more jammy fruit aromas and you get a fleeting sense of that here. There is extra suppleness and softness that comes from a hot summer growing season. The wine’s basic building blocks may indeed be bigger and more robust, but they still fit together like precision patchwork. Dark fruit and prune segues to tobacco and barbecue smoke. The finish shows succulent sweetness and greater textural richness. Only 10,000 bottles are produced..February/2017

Dry red wine, 100% Sangiovese Grosso grapes. This Riserva of Brunello is made with a special selection of grapes collected from our best vineyards in Montalcino. The ageing in barrel and in bottle is longer than the one for a regular Brunello, thus the wine has a deeper concentration and a wider complexity of aromas.

Fattoria dei Barbi is the comeback kid of the year. The wines presented are showing exceptionally well, even this soon after release. This estate has done a great job mitigating any adverse effects of the hot growing season. The fruit is ripe without tasting jammy and the wine offers significant richness and power. Thanks to its centuries (yes, the history of the estate spans back two centuries) of experience, Fattoria dei Barbi is not put off by vintage hardship. In fact, they chose the 2014 vintage (characterized by chilly and wet weather that made fruit ripening difficult) to inaugurate a new Sangiovese-based wine made without any additives. The experiment represents the estate’s first ”natural wine.” Recently, they leased more vineyard land to increase production. These include six hectares in Montalcino and 12 in the Scansano area of the Tuscan Coast. -Monica Larner, WA, 2/28/17