Siro Pacenti has always had an eye towards the future, embracing modern developments and technology, while maintaining the rich traditions of Brunello production. He started this eponymous estate in 1970 with the purchase of a five-hectare vineyard in the Canalicchio district just to the north of Montalcino. Named Pelagrilli, this vineyard also gives its name to their flagship wine. Since then the estate has grown to 60 hectares, but less than a third of that is given over to vineyards. The rest is olive groves and cereal fields, as has been the tradition here for literally thousands of years. Less than 50,000 total bottles are produced in a given year, an absolutely tiny quantity by Montalcino standards, almost all (95%) is exported.
Siro’s son Giancarlo Pacenti took the reins in 1988 and quickly established the estate as one of the leading names in the region. Trained in Bordeaux, he fuses the best of modern cellar technology with progressive farming techniques, including biodynamic practices. The aim here is to arrive at the purest possible expression of the land. Please discard any preconceptions you might have surrounding the word “modern”; these are some of the most elegant, agile, linear wines from this region you will ever taste.
The estate's vineyards are in two main subzones. The Pelagrilli vineyard is their original holding, just to the north of the town of Montalcino, consisting of sandy clay. In the 1990s they also incorporated vineyards in the far south, in the Piancornello district near Castelnuovo dell'Abate, planted by Giancarlo’s maternal grandfather in the 1960s. These consist of gravelly soil over hard bedrock. New plantings are taken from cuttings of the original vines, rather than commercial nursery clones. The vines are fertilized with compost made on-site and pollinated by the estate's very own hive of bees.
Giancarlo insists on new oak for reasons of cleanliness: he emphatically does not want vanilla or clove flavors in his wines. The wood for his barrels is seasoned at least twenty years and barrels are given a very light toast. The Brunelli are bottled after 2 years in barrel to preserve freshness and avoid excessive oak influence (the Rosso spends 1 year in barrel). The vines are at least 15 years old for the Rosso di Montalcino, over 25 for the Brunello Pelagrilli, and 40+ for the Vecchie Vigne. All the fruit is harvested by hand and optically sorted. The wines, with the sole exception of the Rieserva PS, are selected barrel-by-barrel and include fruit from both vineyards, blended to find the optimal balance. The Riserva PS is a singular wine sourced from a 1.5ha parcel planted by Siro in the early 1970s, and is produced only in exceptional vintages.
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