The Maverick Who Changed Brunello Forever.
An Allocation Gift From the Family.

Dear Artisans,

Giancarlo Pacenti makes one of the most elite Brunellos in Montalcino — and he elevated the entire category by being a maverick. He broke away from classic Brunello tradition, yet his wines still embody the sweet soul of Brunello and the region. Collaborating with the University of Bordeaux over the years, he took the best of modern methods and fine-tuned every step of his farming and winemaking. Where most producers age in huge Slovenian oak casks — botte — Giancarlo has largely done away with them, aging almost exclusively in small French oak barriques, at least a third of them new every year, yielding a richer, fresher wine than his fellow producers. Some of his approaches might be considered extreme in the Montalcino context — but they give his wines their very distinctive personality: minty, black-and-blue-fruited, luscious yet cool and fresh. The photos above are from my own visit: every square inch of his winery is immaculate — you could eat off the floor — and that obsessive cleanliness propels the purity and freshness in every glass.

The critics have kept score: his Vecchie Vigne 2015 earned a perfect 100 points and was named James Suckling's #1 Wine of the Year. The 2010 also scored 100 points. The 2019 hit 99, the 2020 hit 98, the 2016 hit 97, and the Riserva PS scored 97 — six 97-to-100-point scores in the past decade, with regular appearances in the Top 100 rankings. Lovers of Casanova di Neri have plenty to admire here.

And the scarcity is deliberate. Farming is sustainable, and new plantings come from massal selection of the oldest parcels. Grape selection is one of Giancarlo's great preoccupations: in 2015 he installed, alongside the usual manual sorting table, an electronic optical sorter that can select individual berries by weight, size, or even the thickness of their skins — every berry judged twice, before and after destemming. The estate produces fewer than 50,000 bottles a year when DOCG rules would allow over 100,000 from the same vines — limited on purpose, for maximum quality. It is hard not to be won over by the passion and commitment of this man.

Sold Out at the Masterclass.
The Winery Sent More — It Landed Today.

February's masterclass with Dr. Cristian Maddalena, Cellar Master and Export Director of Siro Pacenti.

Back in February, we hosted Dr. Cristian Maddalena, Cellar Master and Export Director at Siro Pacenti, direct from Italy, for an incredible masterclass. By the end of that day, our entire allocation of every wine had sold out in the room.

So the winery did something they rarely do: they released additional stock exclusively for our Artisans — and that container just landed today. This email is your first crack at it.

Pelagrilli is the vineyard Siro bought in 1970 and the wine that carries the family flag: 25–40-year-old vines from the Pelagrilli and Piancornello parcels, sorted berry by berry in multiple passes, aged two years in barrique to preserve freshness. The house personality is unmistakable — minty, black-and-blue-fruited, luscious yet cool and fresh — and it walks the razor's edge between elegance and power. Only 2,100 cases were made.

Add 6 or more to your cart and the $5/bottle discount applies automatically — a six-pack of 94–96-point Brunello for $389.94.

Two 100s. A #1 Wine of the Year.
And a flagship at $64.99 by the six-pack.

I've walked Giancarlo Pacenti's cellar. The floors gleam, the barriques are custom, and every berry is sorted twice by machine and hand — that is what a maverick's obsession looks like, and it's why his Brunellos score 97–100 on the regular. The 2020 Pelagrilli at $64.99 a bottle in the six-pack is the most accessible door into that world I have ever been able to offer.

Behind it: 9 bottles of Rosso, 5 of the 98-point Vecchie Vigne, 3 of the library 2013, and the last 2 bottles of a 1,800-bottle Riserva that won't exist again until 2028. Montalcino at its most elite — while it lasts.

Cheers,

— James Tran