Winemaker Notes
The 2014 Siro Pacenti Brunello di Montalcino Pelagrilli is balanced, fresh, and very finely structured. It is recommended to decant before serving.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very pretty black-cherry and fresh-mushroom character on the nose. Medium-bodied with integrated, polished and chewy tannins. Flavorful finish. Slightly austere at the end, but still very attractive.
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Wine Enthusiast
Underbrush, camphor, tobacco and oak aromas mingle with wild berry. On the linear full-bodied palate, fine-grained polished tannins and bright acidity support Marasca cherry, raspberry, baking spice and espresso.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Brunello di Montalcino Pelagrilli (with 20,000 bottles made) is a mid-weight effort with a bouquet that spans a wide breadth with dark fruit notes followed by spice, tobacco and camphor ash. Those aromas are layered and pleasantly complex. This is a more immediate vintage overall to drink within the next 10 years or so. The house style always prizes precision, fruit ripeness and well-managed tannins. All of those qualities apply here.
Rating: 91(+)
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Wine Spectator
This red shows complexity and depth to the plum, cherry, almond, graphite and tobacco flavors. Offers good grip and fine balance overall. Firms up on the finish, but lingers nicely.
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.