We take our time with Brunello. The region is capable of producing some of the world’s most exciting expressions of Sangiovese, but considering the cost of entry most bottles carry these days, we like to wait until something truly special comes across the tasting table. Something like Siro Pacenti’s “Pelagrilli.” In a single bottle, there’s everything we love about great Brunello: the hedonistic richness, the scintillating structure, the regal yet artisanal veneer. It’s delicious and profoundly complex right now, and it’s also a candidate for serious long-term aging. Rarely do we come across a wine so evocative of its Tuscan birthplace in a region dominated by glitzy estates and international investment. And while it’s not cheap, we dare say it’s still a genuine value, offering serious bang for your buck in a region where even entry-level bottlings can approach a triple-digit price tag. “Pelagrilli” drinks like most other Brunello producers’ highest-end cuvées. It might be a while before Brunello features again, but a bottle as great as “Pelagrilli” is a rare thing indeed!
Records of quality wine production in Montalcino date back to the 14th century, but the region as we know it is frankly a very modern creation. From the 1870s until the 1960s, there was only one producer, Biondi-Santi. Their importance can’t be overstated; it was Biondi-Santi who first pioneered monovarietal Sangiovese in the region, forgoing lesser blending varieties. In the late 20th century, however, a wave of new producers transformed the region. At the end of the 1960s, there were 11 producers. By 1999, there were over 200.
There’s no getting around the fact that the region is largely a creation of ambitious outsiders–often business people from the well-to-do north of Italy–but there’s also no denying the sheer greatness of raw materials at play here. The Pacenti vineyards are located just south of Montalcino itself, and “Pelagrilli” is its most historic site. Here, sandy topsoil over clay and southern exposure makes for ripe yet tensile Sangiovese. “Pelagrilli” was the family’s original holding, and the selection of old vines here actually provides the raw material for any new plantings they make.
Rare for a Montalcino producer, the Pacenti family’s focus has been the vineyard from the start. Siro Pacenti founded the estate in 1970, but for the first two decades, only grew fruit and sold it off to other producers. When Siro’s son Giancarlo, Bordeaux-trained and well-traveled, took over in 1988, the Pacentis began producing their own wine. Giancarlo introduced biodynamic practices in the vines and built one of the most modern cellars in Tuscany. But here, “modern” isn’t a pejorative; these are thrillingly tensile and mineral wines, their detailed winemaking just allowing the brilliant fruit and terroir to shine through.
“Pelagrilli” was fully destemmed, then macerated for close to a month in temperature-controlled stainless steel. It was then racked to 225 liter French oak barrels, where it aged for two years. Now, after close to five years in bottle, it’s ready to sing out the gate, after a nice decanting. It pours a brilliant garnet with the slightest bricking at the edges, and the nose is a wash of dusty red fruit and spice. Dried cherries, crushed red raspberries, ripe purple plum flesh, tobacco, sandalwood, black pepper, leather, dusty earth, and scrub brush herbs combine for an intoxicating and evocative experience. The palate is ripe, mouth-coating, the warmth of the Tuscan sun coming through brilliantly in ample red fruit and vanilla tones, before a wick of judicious acid and sandy tannins close the palate out. It’s complex and deeply satisfying right now, but there’s no doubt “Pelagrilli” has the stuffing to go well over a decade in your cellar. This is what great Brunello is all about; no collector should miss “Pelagrilli!”
