2019 Brunello di Montalcino Teatro
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Tasting notes
The ruby red 2019 Brunello Di Montalcino Teatro slowly starts to reveal notes of licorice, black raspberries, violets, and forested earth. It's ripe and full-bodied, with plush, ripe tannins and a delicate warmth through the long finish. It has a great deal of longevity ahead. Drink 2026-2050. Felix and Sabine Eichbauer purchased the Salicutti estate in 2016 from Francesco Leanza, whom they have worked closely with during the transition. I made my first visit to the estate in November 2024, where each of these wines were tasted.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
This wine is now classified as a Riserva. In the bottle with the black wax capsule, the Salicutti 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Teatro shows aromas of tea leaf and chamomile along with very pretty floral impressions that cede to wild berry and redcurrant. The Salicutti house style interpreted by owners Sabine and Felix Eichbauer stresses fruit nuance and floral intensity. From galestro soils with quartz, the wine offers a very fine texture that is absolutely seamlessly delivered. There's a hint of candied raspberry on the close.
Here is one of this year's masterpieces from Montalcino that shares many qualities of my highest-ever rated Brunellos, especially those that fall on the most elegant side of the Sangiovese spectrum. The Salicutti 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Teatro has an obsessively complete set of aromas with fresh plum, blood orange, white pepper, tobacco leaf, potting soil, pressed rose, iron ore and crushed stone. The aromas are all very organic or healthy in character. However, you also get that punchy grape-infusion taste from extended skin contact in cement and slow oak aging. The Teatro sees two years of bottle age (or one more than the others) before its release. This vineyard site has limestone alberese rock with layerings of white quartz, and these impart a slightly dusty quality with pink rock salt. Teatro is the estate's smallest and highest cru at above 500 meters in elevation. The tannins are powdery and fine. I can't wait to revisit this wine in 10 years' time.
The 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Teatro Riserva entices as a whiff of sweet mint and exotic spice gives way to citrus-laced blackberries and hints of black tea. This is lifted and graceful in feel, with soft textures and juicy wild berry fruits that swirl beneath an air of inner violet florals and lavender tones. Remarkably pretty from start to finish, the 2019 tapers off long and perfumed, leaving a sensation of liquid stone and the mouth watering for more. Don't come here for power and intensity; this beauty is built on elegance.