Brunello di Montalcino (2018)

About this wine

This is 100 percent Sangiovese from the Pianrosso cru of Brunello di Montalcino, built around bright red cherry and redcurrant fruit. The nose shows Mediterranean herbs, lavender and a touch of camphor with underlying notes of tobacco and cocoa. On the palate the wine is mid to full bodied with brisk acidity and finely grained tannins that give structure without heaviness. Flavors move from fresh cherry and orange peel into savory elements of rosemary, cured meat and a mineral iron note that carries through a long finish. The wine is matured in large Slavonian oak barrels in line with Brunello tradition, which helps integrate the spice and oak while preserving the wine’s energy.

About the grape

This Brunello is made exclusively from local Sangiovese, mostly the Sangiovese Grosso Brunello clone that has been selected from the estate oldest vines and valued for its larger berries and thick skins. The vineyards for the Pianrosso bottling sit around 240 to 360 meters above sea level on galestro and marly soils in the Val d Orcia, and the estate manages the vines with shallow ploughing, careful canopy work and selected clones such as VR5 and R24 to balance bunch density and ripening. Rootstock 1103 Paulsen and modern monitoring are used alongside traditional training and aging approaches so the single grape variety expresses site specific structure and longevity.

Quick facts

• 🏛️ The Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona name comes from a historic marriage that linked the Ciacci family to the noble Piccolomini d'Aragona line, a family that includes a descendant of Pope Pius II, and that noble story still appears on the bottle.
• 📜 The estate sits around a 17th century palazzo and its original vaulted cellar still holds very old vintages, so a bottle of their Brunello is literally connected to centuries of local history.
• ☀️ The 2018 Brunello from this estate comes from one of the warmest corners of Montalcino, which helped produce a noticeably riper and more concentrated Sangiovese expression for that vintage.
• 👨‍🌾 The modern chapter of this Brunello began when Countess Elda left the property to her farm manager Giuseppe Bianchini in 1985, he released the estate's first commercial Brunello that same year, and his family still runs the winery.
• 🛢️ The winery ages wine in an underground cellar called Molinello which was designed to use natural temperature control, a feature that contributes to the elegant, long lived character of their Brunello bottles.

Palate profile

Producer

Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona, located in Montalcino, Italy, traces its origins to the 17th century when the Bishop of Montalcino, Fabivs de' Vecchis, constructed the original palace. In 1877, the Ciacci family acquired the estate, and through the marriage of Elda Ciacci and Count Alberto Piccolomini d'Aragona, a descendant of Pope Pius II, the property was renamed. In 1985, Countess Elda Ciacci bequeathed the estate to Giuseppe Bianchini, the longtime farm manager, who transformed it into a renowned wine producer. Today, the winery is managed by Giuseppe's children, Paolo and Lucia, who continue to uphold the family's winemaking legacy.