Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona Brunello di Montalcino Pianrosso 2013
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James
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#10 Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Cellar Selections of 2019
The bouquet is intense, complex, fruit-forward and spicy with hints or ripe red berry fruits enriched by various spicy notes. Warm, soft and harmonic on the palate. Great balance among pronounced tannins, acidity and savouriness. This elegant wine has great potential for further cellar ageing.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Wild-berry, fragrant purple-flower and crushed aromatic herb aromas mingle with whiffs of tilled earth and new leather on this dazzling red. The stunning, savory palate boasts remarkable finesse combined with an age-worthy structure, offering succulent black cherry, raspberry compote, licorice and tobacco alongside taut, refined tannins. It's impeccably balanced, with bright acidity. It's already tempting, but hold for even more complexity. Drink 2021–2033. Cellar Selection
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Although this wine is not labeled as a riserva, it is released six years after the harvest as if it were one. The 2013 Brunello di Montalcino Pianrosso (with 20,000 bottles produced) opens to balanced fragrances that mix fruity elements with spice, crushed stone and smoke. This wine is linear and direct with firm tannic support at the back. Give it another few years to flesh out further with additional bottle aging.
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James Suckling
A wealth of coffee and spice aromas with ripe fruit. Full body and round tannins. Delicious and rich. Flavorful finish. Opulent style. Drink or hold.
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Decanter
Elegant red fruit, oak, vanilla, coffee, forest floor and exotic spice nose and palate. The tannins are fine-grained and well integrated. Very persistent finish.
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Ciacci Piccolomini is one of the most sought-after producers in all of Italy. This ancient estate has 35 hectares of superior holdings in the prized Castelnuovo dell’Abate zone, including the ‘Pianrosso’ vineyard (meaning ‘red field,’ a reference to the iron rich soils) and the ‘Fonte’ vineyard, which produces grapes for the Rosso di Montalcino.
Plantings of Syrah, Cabernet, and Merlot are to the south, where the Orcia river provides a milder microclimate. The non-traditional wines are as exciting as the Brunello and Rosso: ‘Ateo,’ which means ‘atheist,’ is a statement against the restrictive laws that govern winemaking in Italy; the wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. 100% Syrah ‘Fabius’ is one of the greatest expressions of that variety in Italy and Parker once called it “the finest Italian Syrah I have tasted.” The estate is a member of the EU ‘Lotta Integrata’ movement, which promotes reduced use of chemicals and organic viticulture; at Ciacci, fertilization is organic, and pruning and harvest are done by hand.
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.