The Maverick of Montalcino.
Legendary Siro Pacenti 2021s 97-99 Point New Releases.
Lowest Price In The Country

Dear Artisans,

Every year there are two or three releases I wait for. This is one of them, and the 2021s are the best pair of wines I have seen from this address in a long time.

Siro Pacenti bought five hectares in the Canalicchio district north of Montalcino in 1970. The vineyard was called Pelagrilli, and it still gives its name to the flagship wine. The estate has grown to 60 hectares since, but less than a third of that is vines. The rest is olive groves and cereal fields, farmed the way this land has been farmed for thousands of years.

Fewer than 50,000 bottles leave here in a year, which is nothing by Montalcino standards, and 95% of it is exported. That is why you rarely see it stacked anywhere.

Siro’s son Giancarlo took over in 1988 and had the estate among the leading names in the region within a decade. He trained in Bordeaux and runs a modern cellar over progressive, biodynamic-leaning farming. He is emphatic about one thing: he uses new oak for cleanliness, not flavour. The wood is seasoned at least twenty years and given the lightest toast, and the Brunelli come out of barrel at two years to keep the fruit in front. No vanilla, no clove, no makeup.

2021 was a warm year that produced concentrated, structured wines, and Pacenti handled the heat better than most. Falstaff gave the Vecchie Vigne 99 points, Dunnuck and Suckling both went 98, and the Pelagrilli took 97 from both plus a 95 from Wine Spectator. These are wines to put away, not to open tonight.

A release like this is normally sold pre-arrival, months before the wine exists on a shelf, and the reward for tying up your money early is a lower price. We already committed, already paid, and the pallets are in the building. For Labor Day weekend we are holding that pre-arrival number anyway. No waiting, no allocation email, no six-month lag. Buy it today and carry it out.

The offer ends Monday, September 7th at 11:59 PM, and both wines go back to regular price on Tuesday morning.

The old-vine selection, drawn from the oldest blocks of Pelagrilli and Piancornello where the vines run 40 to 60 years. Yields are about three tonnes a hectare, the fruit goes through an optical sorter twice, and the wine sees 24 months in custom French barriques, two months in concrete and 22 months in bottle before release. Around 12,000 bottles made. This is the one to bury for a decade.

The flagship, named for the vineyard Siro bought in 1970, and the wine that built this estate’s reputation. Sangiovese from 25 to 40 year old vines across Pelagrilli and Piancornello, sorted repeatedly, fermented on indigenous yeast and unfiltered. Both Dunnuck and Suckling gave it 97, which is the highest either has scored a Pelagrilli.

The 2020 old-vine bottling, and the more approachable of the two vintages. Wine Spectator called it an anomaly for the year and said it almost feels more like a 2019, which is high praise. Drinking well now with a long runway.

Six critics, none below 94, and the most drinkable Pacenti in the lineup right now. Dunnuck calls it the elegant one, less structured than the rest of the range and more approachable. If you want to understand this estate before committing to the 2021s, start here.

The Riserva, made only in the years Giancarlo thinks warrant it, from the estate’s best barrels. 2019 is widely called the vintage of the decade in Montalcino, and this is the top of the house in that year. The collector’s bottle in the range.

Not a junior Brunello. This is made from the same 50-50 blend of southern and northern fruit as the Vecchie Vigne, off 15 to 25 year old vines, optically sorted and given a full 12 months in new French barrique. A 94 from Dunnuck is remarkable at the Rosso level, and about 15,000 bottles are made a year.

Montalcino has plenty of estates making correct, expensive Brunello. Very few of them are making wine this precise at this scale, and fewer still are doing it without hiding the fruit under new wood. Giancarlo Pacenti has been at it since 1988 and the 2021s are the best argument he has made yet.

If you are buying to cellar, the Vecchie Vigne is the one, and at $149.97 for a 99-point Brunello you will not do better anywhere. If you want to drink Pacenti this year, the 2020 Pelagrilli is drinking beautifully now. And the Rosso at fifty-five dollars is the value of the whole Montalcino category.

The 2021 pricing holds until 11:59 PM Monday, September 7th, then goes back up. Both are on the shelf today, so there is nothing to wait for.

Cheers,