Livio Sassetti Pertimali Brunello di Montalcino 2015
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The 2015 Livio Sassetti Brunello di Montalcino Pertimali is full-bodied, complex, elegant and well balanced. The nose is intense with refined fragrances of ripe fruit, violets, spices. The palate is characterized by minerality that concludes with a long finish.
Pair this wine with red meats and homemade pasta.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
There’s something ethereal in the nose with flowers, cherries, strawberries and shitake mushrooms. Full body. This grows on the palate with super tannin and fruit structure. So much berry flavor and round, caressing tannins that fill your mouth. Tight at the end. This needs four to five years to show its true greatness. Try after 2023.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of woodland berry, pine forest, truffle and dried herb emerge from the glass in this fragrant red. Full in weight but refined, the accessible palate offers dried cherry, black tea, star anise and a dollop of vanilla alongside polished tannins before a minty finish. Reflecting the hot vintage, it’s already approachable but still offers good midterm aging potential. Drink 2021–2027.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I had put a question mark next to my original score for this wine when I first tasted it at the beginning of the year, as that sample appeared very ripe and maybe a bit oxidized. Coming back to the Pertimali - Livio Sassetti 2015 Brunello di Montalcino six months later, I discover a wine that is drier (as opposed to jammy or overtly overripe) but quite intact and balanced overall. The tannins are a bit dusty and so is the fruit, with powered cherry and raspberry flavors. There are tart fruit flavors that give this bottle a better sense of lift and energy, especially compared to that first sample.
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For over three generations, the Sassetti family has been producing wine in Montalcino. The "Podere Pertimali" with its 16 hectares of vineyards is nestled on a slope in the Montosoli hill, north of Montalcino, one of the most favourable terroirs for Sangiovese in the area. Maintaining the family tradition, Livio has renovated and extended the vineyards, retaining the genetic material of the original vines and preserving their primigenial characteristics.
In 1967, Livio is among the founders of Consorzio del Brunello di Montalcino. In 1968, Livio built a terracotta wall in his cellar, to keep the old vintages of the wines produced by his family. Today, this collection counts over 1000 bottles, among which stands out the 'grandmother' of the current production, a bottle dated 1915!
In 1999 The Sassetti family purchased a property in the Tuscan Maremma, La Querciolina. within the DOC Montecucco. Thanks to their passion and experience, untended fields turned into vineyards able to produce Sangiovese and Ciliegiolo of great quality.
Today, both wineries are managed by Lorenzo Sassetti, Livio's son, who is focused in continuing his family's winemaking tradition.
Among Italy's elite red grape varieties, Sangiovese has the perfect intersection of bright red fruit and savory earthiness and is responsible for the best red wines of Tuscany. While it is best known as the chief component of Chianti, it is also the main grape in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and reaches the height of its power and intensity in the complex, long-lived Brunello di Montalcino. Somm Secret—Sangiovese doubles under the alias, Nielluccio, on the French island of Corsica where it produces distinctly floral and refreshing reds and rosés.
Famous for its bold, layered and long-lived red, Brunello di Montalcino, the town of Montalcino is about 70 miles south of Florence, and has a warmer and drier climate than that of its neighbor, Chianti. The Sangiovese grape is king here, as it is in Chianti, but Montalcino has its own clone called Brunello.
The Brunello vineyards of Montalcino blanket the rolling hills surrounding the village and fan out at various elevations, creating the potential for Brunello wines expressing different styles. From the valleys, where deeper deposits of clay are found, come wines typically bolder, more concentrated and rich in opulent black fruit. The hillside vineyards produce wines more concentrated in red fruits and floral aromas; these sites reach up to over 1,600 feet and have shallow soils of rocks and shale.
Brunello di Montalcino by law must be aged a minimum of four years, including two years in barrel before realease and once released, typically needs more time in bottle for its drinking potential to be fully reached. The good news is that Montalcino makes a “baby brother” version. The wines called Rosso di Montalcino are often made from younger vines, aged for about a year before release, offer extraordinary values and are ready to drink young.