"James Suckling 94 Points
The 2017 Brunello di Montalcino Poggiarelli reveals dense and rich fiber that wraps thickly but smoothly over the palate. This wine is woven tightly with soft layers of black fruit, plum, spice, tar and licorice. It is important to underline the difference between the more compact and vertical La Mannella against this more generous and broad-based wine, especially when making food-pairing decisions. This is your proverbial charred-meat wine."
Tommaso Cortonesi’s grandfather bought La Mannella in the 1970s. The estate spreads over 56 hectares, eight of which produce Brunello di Montalcino. The major vineyard is around the winery at La Mannella, just north of Montalcino itself, but there is another vineyard near Castelnuovo dell’ Abate, to the south east of the town. Originally just one Brunello was made, a blend from the two separate vineyards, but in the 1990s, Tommaso and his father realised that the two vineyards had distinctly different soil composition. They decided that better wine would be made if each terroir was properly realised in the bottle, and thus were born Poggiarelli (in the south east) and La Mannella (in the north).
Poggiarelli has rocky soil, rich in marl, whereas at La Mannella it is mainly clay and limestone. Poggiarelli is at about 420 m.a.s.l and La Mannella is 280-350 m.a.s.l. The oldest vines were planted in 1983, and another two plots were planted in 1998. All their wines are 100% Sangiovese.
