Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino 2020

97+ points - Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, November 2024

Very much still a baby at the time of my tasting, the Poggio di Sotto 2020 Brunello di Montalcino shares many similarities with the epic 2016 vintage in terms of its pretty perfumes and polished length. However, this elegant wine does not have the same sheer inner power. This bottle ultimately offers a fresh and charming interpretation of Sangiovese. This is a delicate wine with floral aromas, wild rose, crushed stone and white cherry. Aged in large Slavonian oak casks, it requires more time to flesh out. Harvest started the last week of August and finished the first week of October, which represents a conscious decision to start picking earlier than most. The vineyards are planted on schistic galestro soils, and that territorial imprint comes through strongly in all of these wines. I love that refreshing hint of lemon rind or navel orange at the very end.

If you consider these three factors—consistent quality over many vintages, a steadfast adherence to a classical winemaking tradition and a ready influx of capital—you might agree that Poggio di Sotto has few rivals in Montalcino.

Poggio di Sotto, owned by Claudio Tipa of ColleMassari on the Tuscany Coast since 2011, holds "the" blueprint for elegant Brunello di Montalcino. The estate’s pedigree was set by Piero Palmucci, who acquired the property in 1989 and certified it for organics that same year. The first vineyards date back to the 1970s (with replanting efforts in 1982, 1985 and 1989), and the first Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino was produced in 1991.

I met with winemakers Leonardo Berti and Luca Marrone in early November 2024 for what would prove to be a fascinating deep dive into the Poggio di Sotto philosophy.

The guiding principle is “early is better.” Says Marrone, “It’s better to pick two days early and not one day late.”

In Tuscany, olives are harvested only after all the grapes are safely brought into the winery, and Poggio di Sotto strives to be among the first to pick grapes each harvest season. Leonardo Berti says, "We start picking the olives when others are still picking grapes."

Recent vintages boast a contained 13.5% alcohol content as a result of these choices.

Poggio di Sotto counts 20 hectares of vines (over an estate total of 48 hectares), all planted to Sangiovese, and most of the vines are 50-plus years old. The growing areas are roughly divided into three areas: a piano-shaped vineyard near Castelnuovo dell’Abate, a site closer to the winery at 350 meters in elevation and a small 1.5-hectare plot at an even higher 470 meters in elevation. Within that bigger tapestry, specific vineyards are identified across a distinct 20 parcels. This diversity gives the winemaking team plenty of blending choices.

The original DNA of the estate remains intact since Piero Palmucci’s time. In 2014, Poggio di Sotto completed an estate-wide massal selection with support from the University of Florence that looked to identify Sangiovese biotypes by ripening times (which vary within a three- to four-week window), cluster size, color and other factors.

At the end of the study, 182 Sangiovese clones were identified, giving the estate catalogued biodiversity and a vast color palette from which to draw new planting material. Since 2017, they have propagated all new vines using this material. Poggio di Sotto boasts its own library of mixed clones in a five-hectare experimental vineyard.

“We have codified the heritage of our grapes, and we don’t want to lose what we have,” says Leonardo Berti.

The Vineyards
Luca, Leonardo and I drove through the vineyards, starting off with the lower plots under Castelnuovo dell’Abate. These areas have exceptional soils, with schistic galestro intersected with veins of white quartz. These vines, planted to bilateral cordon, grow in Montalcino’s oldest soils, dating back 20 million years. These areas give the vertical intensity and structural backbone to Poggio di Sotto’s wines.

At a slightly higher elevation (between 170 and 180 meters above sea level), we visited vines planted in 1982 on reddish, iron-rich soils. These oxygen-free or largely asphyxiated soils render ferrous notes, bergamot and blood orange aromas in the wines. This plot is usually the first to be harvested, and in 2024, grape picking started on August 26th, with the grapes coming in at 13% to 14.2% potential alcohol.

We visited another site, situated in between the Poggio di Sotto and San Giorgio wineries (this second brand is also owned by Claudio Tipa), with rounded river rocks from alluvial soils once found under an ancient seabed. These have a yellowish color. The resulting wines are fresh and aromatic.

Poggio di Sotto enlarged its portfolio by acquiring a beautiful vineyard overlooking the Sant’Antimo Abbey in 2018.

The Winery
The fermentation area was moved to the neighboring San Giorgio winery in 2015. Oak fermenters in the original fermentation room are now used for temporary storage.

Macerations are generally long, and cap management is executed delicately with manual pump-overs. “Punch-downs are not recommended for Sangiovese,” says Leonardo Berti. The winemaking duo allow lots of air to filtrate in. And a slow extraction, especially during the last part of fermentation, is especially important for achieving silk tannins, they explain.

Poggio di Sotto is known for its Garbellotto botte made with specially ordered selections of Slavonian oak. In truth, I noticed a few Mittelberger botte mixed into the fray. The winery counts 74 casks in total.

The Poggio di Sotto Rosso di Montalcino usually sees two years in oak, the Brunello di Montalcino ages for three years and the Brunello di Montalcino Riserva can mature between three and four years.

This retrospective was a long time in the making. These same vintages were presented at a tasting in New York a while back. Because I was not able to attend, the winery was kind enough to save bottles for me and bring them back to Italy. We tasted them on November 1, 2024 at the winery.

. - Monica Larner