2020 Il Marroneto Brunello di Montalcino Madonna Delle Grazie
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Alessandro Mori has a complicated relationship with the Riserva category, having produced the wine from 1980 to 1988 before abandoning it, only to return with a one-off release in 2013. With the Il Marroneto 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Madonna delle Grazie, we see the next chapter. Alessandro Mori insists there is no formula for deciding when a Riserva is made. “Every year is different,” he says. “It’s not science; it’s a feeling. One person is named Alessandro and another person is Alessio; they are just different people.” While he is contemplating another Riserva in 2025, he is quick to note that it is far too early to know. Born in the auspicious botte number 18 and aged for 58 months, the 2020 Riserva leans into a dark fruit spectrum with elegant aromatics and a profoundly silky texture. High phenolics were evident from the outset, prompting Alessandro Mori to call it “a monster,” yet the wine completed an extraordinarily slow and gradual fermentation lasting three and a half years, a rarity made possible thanks to native yeasts and the absence of temperature control. That long evolution has shaped remarkable texture and stability, finishing with generosity, freshness and a finely etched tannic lift. Full-bodied yet seamless, this is a true 360-degree wine, sensual, rich and deeply expressive. As Alessandro Mori reflects, “Wine is not perfect. It becomes perfect with time. That’s how it finds its true balance.” Produced in just 150 magnums, this is a rare and spectacular bottle from Il Marroneto
Critic scores
Eric Guido, Vinous
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
The incredibly complex 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Madonna delle Grazie Riserva takes its time evolving in the glass, drawing you in with nuances of black tea, incense and allspice. Further swirling invokes depths of dried black cherry, ashen stones and cinnamon. This is a textural masterpiece, weighty yet graceful, penetrating, tart and intense, all balanced by radiant acidity as masses of red fruit envelop the senses. The 2020 leaves the palate stained with primary concentration, finishing structured and long with the silkiest tannins imaginable. A tinge of pomegranate and clove fades over the course of a minute or more. Deceivingly approachable yet harmonious and balanced for the long haul, the 2020 Madonna delle Grazie Riserva is one of the most captivating wines I've ever tasted from Montalcino.
Deep youthful ruby. Rich black forest fruits and sour-cherry and raspberry nose. Full and deep and complex. Suave, dense and spread out on the palate but with the perfect dose of acidity and fine tannins that stay under the fruit almost as an understatement. Hedonistic and cerebral at the same time. Exuberant but much too young. (WS)
From vines near a little 13th-century church. Grown on coarse marine sand 'mixed with minerals' at 400 m. Vinified in Allier oak vats and left still for 2 days before spontaneous fermentation that lasts 16 to 17 days. Aged in large 26-hl casks for 47 months. Fewer than 3,000 bottles made. Deeper crimson than the regular 2020. Lifted, intense nose and, again, the difference (as with the two 2022 Rossos) is an extra vibration in this cuvée. Anchovy sauce makes the wine taste sweeter. So full of life, it could be drunk immediately! (JR)
About the producer
Il Marroneto is one of Montalcino’s most respected producers. Its Madonna delle Grazie is consistently one of the top-scoring Brunello di Montalcinos of any vintage.