Siro Pacenti, as many of you PRIMA old-timers will already know, has been associated with our business since the 1988 vintage when PRIMA’s own Master of Wine Joel Butler first convinced a reluctant Giancarlo Pacenti he could sell his Brunello in California. This was back in the day when that was no mean feat! Anyway, once they arrived, these plush, stylish wines immediately struck a chord here and, before you know it, the Pacenti name was on every Brunello lover’s lips, not only ours. Thanks again, Joel! Our allocation of Pacenti’s Brunellos usually sell out in a matter of minutes- part of the general frenzy that has surrounded the recent string of great vintages in Tuscany and the passion for Brunello in general. But, hurray for us, in addition to his collection of Pacenti Estate Brunellos that include the Pelegrilli and Vecchie Vigne cuvees, there is something new and fun in the Pacenti lineup. Loath to create an easier drinking, young vines cuvee with the Pacenti name on it, Giancarlo has developed a totally new project dedicated solely to producing an affordable Brunello not requiring the time his old vine Pacenti Brunellos needs to mature. It’s all Pacenti fruit, to be sure, from that sweet spot of the Pelagrilli subzone in the northern part of the district near Montosoli Hill, but selected from vines aged younger than 15 years that Giancarlo had replanted by sélection massale into the vineyard his father had first planted in the 1960s. The grapes were harvested and made the same way as the Pacenti Brunellos- the hand-picking, optical sorting, etc., but gets a slighter shorter four-week maceration in order to not extract too much tannin before being aged 24 months in a combination of small French oak barrels and concrete tanks. After 18 months chillin’ in the Pacenti cellar, the debut vintage of Terre di Montalcino is finally ready to be introduced to a world thirsty for a Brunello with all the gravitas and quality of Pacenti’s without the wait. It’s really a brilliant wine with a vivid cherry red Sangiovese color and a pop of the precocious smoky, chocolate-covered cherry and spice aromatics that only those young, enthusiastic vines can provide. Fresh and crunchy right out of the bottle, there’s a lovely mid-weight mouthfeel to the palate- a sort of velvet glove that effortlessly conceals the iron-fisted tannins for which Brunello is justly famous. It’s built to offer a certain plushness and accessibility rather than for the long-term aging required of the other wines Giancarlo produces. We’re as pleased now to be the first on the block to introduce this new Pacenti wine as we were to introduce the first back in 1991!