Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
From 24-year-old vines, the 2020 Brunello Di Montalcino Pelagrilli pours a saturated red hue and is a luxuriously expressive, detailed wine with notes of polished leather, fresh red plum, sweet tobacco, potpourri, and currants. The palate is full yet compact and offers refreshing, energetic acidity, refined tannins, and a long-lasting finish with mouthwatering saltiness. An elegant red, it’s less structured in the range and more approachable.
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James Suckling
A round and juicy red with berry, cherry, mushroom and wet-earth character on both the nose and palate. It’s full-bodied with integrated tannins that are soft and luscious. Long, flavorful finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Showing an especially bold bouquet and rich concentration, the Siro Pacenti 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Pelagrilli is a big expression of Sangiovese by all means, but the wine is also balanced. The intensity is played up with aromas of baked fruit, toasted spice, sweet herb and grilled rosemary, and there is a hint of redwood and cedar or barbecue smoke. To the palate, the wine is very round and fleshed out. It covers all corners of the mouth. This is a big-boned wine with powdery young tannins and a velvety finish. Aging takes place in French barrique, which has always been the stylistic choice favored by this estate.
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Vinous
Plum sauce and sage combine with crushed black cherries and balsamic spice to create a darkly seductive bouquet as the 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Pelagrilli comes to life in the glass. It's silken in feel with cool-toned acidity and racy wild berry fruits that flow across the palate with ease. Incredibly long and expertly balanced, the 2020 leaves hints of black raspberry and sour cherry pits over a layer of sweet tannins. Patience will be required but also rewarded.
Rating: 94+ -
Wine Spectator
There's a mix of cherry, plum, earth and oak spice flavors in this red, which starts out linear in profile, yet fluid, before expanding on the finish as the dense, dusty tannins flex their muscles. Best from 2027 through 2042. 2,167 cases made, 750 cases imported.
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.