From: Tuscany, Italy
Varietal: Sangiovese
Tasting Notes: Old vines offer restricted yields and vigor while concentrating energy on the grapes. This is evident here as the wine showcases intense red and black fruits, underbrush, roasted aromas, and spice complimented by the influence of oak aging.
Critical Acclaim: “Ripe fruit with lavender and sandalwood as well as some new wood on the nose. Medium to full body, with firm and structured tannins that are polished and curated. Needs time to soften and come together. Bigger style for Pacenti due to the hot vintage.” –James Suckling, 94 points
About this wine. This wine comes from two vineyards with vines over 35 years old; annual production is around 30,000 bottles. Pelagrilli is characterized by clayey, sandy soils, sitting at 350 meters above sea level at the base of the Montalcino hill. The wines are elegant and aromatic. In Piancornello, the vines grow in more mineral and pebbly soils atop ground rock. The climate here is also hotter, resulting in more structured, potent wines with the sweet, round tannins typical of Sangiovese.
Grapes were harvested by hand with manual grape sorting before and after the destemming, and the fermentation took place in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine then aged in 225-liter French oak barrels for 24 months before bottling without filtration and aging before release.
About Siro Pacenti. The Pacenti estate was established in 1970, with the purchase of the property north of Montalcino (Pelagrilli) by Siro, who then proceeded to plant important vineyards that remain productive today in the fresh, clay soils of the land overlooking Siena. In 1988, management passed into the hands of Giancarlo. This was the harvest year the estate’s Rosso and Brunello di Montalcino were bottled for the first time.
In the early 1990s, the estate expanded to include land south of Montalcino (Piancornello), where Giancarlo’s maternal grandfather planted five hectares of vines in mineral-rich soils at the end of the 1960s. The ’90s were also marked by the start of the partnership with the University of Bordeaux and the first experiments on phenolic maturity applied to Sangiovese (Yves Glories). The new cellar was built between 2001 and 2004, combining technology and experience with respect for the grapes and the land. Today, the estate cultivates 22 hectares of Sangiovese.
