TN: 2001 Siro Pacenti Brunello di Montalcino

Consumed over two days. Pop and pour on day one. Nice color, nice aroma. Nice balance, still fairly tannic, but nothing stood out. Nice wine, nothing special.

Day 2: The color deepened, the tannins smoothed out, but in the end it was nothing special. I thought that 2001 was supposed to be a great vintage for this region. Is this all that there is with these wines?

Posted from CellarTracker

Brian, I haven’t had the 01 Siro Pacenti in a while but 01 really is a homerun vintage in Brunello. Siro Pacenti is not my favorite producer stylistically but I recall the wine being solid when I tasted it ~2 years ago, certainly better than you describe.

I have recently had the following that have all been very good to fantastic (to my tastes anyways):
Conti Costanti
Ciacci Pianrosso
Sassetti Pertimali
Il Poggione
Salicutti
Sesta di Sopra
Fuligni
Fanti
Uccelliera

Canalicchio was good but not up to my expectations

My only dogs have been Argiano, Castelgiocondo and Le Chiuse (bad bottles / microbial problems on the latter).

A couple others have been not in my style but clearly well made, like Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuova…

Josh,

Thanks for the list of wines that you have enjoyed. I’m trying to expand my palate and try different wines from regions where I don’t have a lot of experience. If you had to pick one representative wine from that list, which would it be and why?

Brian I generally tend to like “traditional” wines, whatever that means. I don’t dislike some oak and concentration, but I dislike jammy wines that taste of campfire, vanilla and coconut, to be frank. That said, without opening the huge can of worms of “what is modern and what is not in Brunello” my favorite Brunellos are red fruited, mineral, aromatic and pure, and are not the “dark blockbuster” wines that Suckling and many others swoon for. FWIW, I also don’t generally see much reason to buy the Riservas…

For my tastes the top three 01 Brunellos I’ve had are, in this order:

  1. Conti Costanti
  2. Ciacci Piccolomini “Pianrosso”
  3. Livio Sassetti “Pertimali”

There were all ~$40-$45 on release. The 04’s look to all be ~$50-55 wines.

Josh,

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like we might like the same type of wine. I’ll check them out.

I had the 2001 Pacenti a few weeks ago and felt the same way. I also prefer a more “traditional” style. One of my favorites over the years has been Scopetone…year in and year out I have enjoyed their wines…especially 5+ years after their release.

Sounds like I should try Scopetone. I have to admit, I am pretty familiar with about 30 or so Brunello producers but there are a lot that I haven’t gotten to yet…

Another favorite (made in a traditional style) is Le Macioche. Owned by a retired engineer, he is insistant on making Brunello the way it should be made (in his opinion)…good stuff…