Siro Pacenti Brunello di Montalcino Vecchie Vigne 2015
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Structured, elegant, with very fine tannins and a great complexity. Vineyards over 35 years of age, absolute respect for the land and a great experience are essential to obtain a wine with these characteristics. It is not filtered and reaches its maximum expression after a few years of aging.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
An incredible benchmark for Brunello with great depth, length and power. Sour cherries, flowers, dried fruit and bark. Full and layered with intense, polished tannins. Tightens at the end. Goes on for minutes. Better in the future, but always great.
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Wine Spectator
A light touch of oak is well-integrated with the cherry, plum and wild herb flavors in this powerful yet balanced red. A distinctive saline quality plays out on the long finish. A little less fruity than many of its peers, but no less complex. Best from 2023 through 2042.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Siro Pacenti 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Vecchie Vigne remains one of the most contemporary wines to emerge from this sun-kissed appellation in southern Tuscany. You taste the richness and suppleness of its dark fruit and abundant blackberry. However, the wine also offers hints of exotic spice, savory tobacco and even a touch of talc powder or buttered popcorn that comes from the oak (it sees 24 months in French barrique). Indeed, this wine's lactic signature remains strong. This adds to the distinctively creamy, viscous and rich nature of the full-bodied mouthfeel. Fruit comes from old vines ranging from 35 to 50 years old. Stylistically, some of the intricacies of Sangiovese are sacrificed in the name of texture and density.
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Wine Enthusiast
Menthol, pine resin and forest-floor aromas mix with whiff of iris. Firmly structured and youthfully austere, the palate offers dried black cherry, licorice and black tea alongside assertive, fine-grained tannins. It closes on a coffee bean note. Drink 2023–2030.
Other Vintages
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James
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Giancarlo Pacenti is one of the leaders of the younger generation of innovative Montalcinesi who take inspiration and new ideas from outside of the zone and often beyond Italian borders. His two vineyards lie in two very different areas of Montalcino: one to the northeast of the town, where the wines develop full, ripe qualities; and one to the hotter southwest area near Sant’Angelo in Colle, which produces a more powerful, minerally wine. The Rosso is considered to be one of the very best, with the fruit’s inherent structure delicately enhanced by a brief passage in barriques (the 2006 vintage has just received 90 points from Parker). Since the 1995 vintage, his Brunello has repeatedly won Gambero Rosso's most prestigious Tre Bicchieri (Three Glass) award in addition to 90+ scores from all the major international publications.
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.