The Feeding Frenzy, Round Two.
Last 4-8 Bottles of 100-98pt Ciacci

Dear Artisans,

We hosted a Ciacci Piccolomini masterclass back in May, and the room turned into a feeding frenzy — every bottle of our allocation, gone. So we went back to the source and secured additional allocations pulled from their importer's New Jersey warehouse, brought in exclusively for our Artisans. That is the only reason any of the wines below exist on our shelves today.

For Ciacci, greatness is simply business as usual. Across just the current releases in this email: a perfect 100 from Falstaff, a 99 and two 98s from James Suckling — including his #3 Wine of Italy — and a dozen scores of 95 or better. Yet production remains minuscule: 35 hectares in the prized Castelnuovo dell'Abate zone, an estate left to the Bianchini family in 1985 by the heirless Countess Elda Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona, still run by the brother-and-sister team of Paolo and Lucia.

And the timing could not be better: these bottles span 2019, 2020, and 2021 — the greatest run of vintages Montalcino has ever strung together. Lovers of Casanova di Neri, Siro Pacenti, and Valdicava have much to love here: the same polished, approachable-yet-ageworthy style, with iron-rich Pianrosso soul.

Made only in the finest vintages from the iron-rich heart of Pianrosso, dedicated to the late Giuseppe Bianchini, and aged over 36 months in Slavonian oak. In the five-star 2019 vintage it achieved what few Brunellos ever do: a perfect score.

When Suckling ranked his Top 100 Wines of Italy, this exact bottle landed at #3 in the entire country — ahead of wines at five times the price. Opulent, rose-scented, and built on Pianrosso's iron: the big, generous face of the great 2020 vintage.

The brand-new release, from the vintage critics are calling Montalcino's finest of the modern era — and it matched the 2020's 98 points while adding two more 95s. Five critics, 95–98 points. This is the bottle to buy in depth and cellar next to your 2020s.

The whole estate in one glass — every vineyard, blended — from the sun-drenched southern slopes Monica Larner says pour "late-afternoon warmth" straight into the wine. A 96-point Brunello from the greatest vintage of the era for $64.97 is the value of this entire email.

May's frenzy emptied the shelves.
This is the encore — and the finale.

A 100-point Riserva down to its last 4 bottles. Suckling's #3 wine in all of Italy, down to 8. The equally rated 2021, the 96-point value Brunello, and estate wines from $19.97 — all pulled from the importer's warehouse for Artisans alone, all from the greatest vintages Montalcino has ever strung together.

If Casanova di Neri, Siro Pacenti, and Valdicava live in your cellar, Ciacci belongs beside them. When these counts hit zero, there is no round three.

Cheers,

— James Tran