2015 Siro Pacenti Brunello di Montalcino Riserva PS

The PS is the sole single vineyard bottle produced by Siro Pacenti, with only 1000 bottles and 200 magnums being produced. PS is sourced from vines planted by Siro Pacenti in the early 1970s on the northwest side of Montalcino and is only produced in the best vintages. The 2015 PS is rich and inviting, with sweet blackberry and plum fruit, licorice, and crushed lavender. The palate is full, though it has more freshness than the nose would suggest, with gripping tannins and energetic acidity to match. The warmth of the vintage is tangible, and for that reason I believe the 2016 will have some edge in the long haul for aging potential. As with the rest of the Brunello line-up, the PS spent two years in French oak of 225 liters that is noticeable but poised for a polished style. Enjoy over the next 15 years. Located northeast of the town of Montalcino, Giancarlo Pacenti has helmed this estate since 1988, when he first began to bottle the family’s wine under the Siro Pacenti label.

Having tasted this wine in a preview capacity a few years back, it's exciting to compare my past impressions to the current ones. In the case of the Siro Pacenti 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva PS, I found that the oak signature was very strong back then and that it remains very strong, even too strong today. There's beauty here, no doubt, but the stylistic preference for 100% new oak on Sangiovese is forever controversial and debatable. I find that it no longer jibes with my palate, although from an intellectual point of view it’s impossible not to recognize the craftsmanship. The aging protocol is set forth by a gradually increasing grain and toast regimen with custom barrels ordered from tonnellerie Taransaud. The wine is aged in new oak for two years and racked every three months for the first year of aging. Detail-oriented farming translates into an impressive 600 to 700 hours of manual work per hectare. The wine's appearance is almost impenetrable, and the bouquet is well-integrated with black fruit, spice and balsam notes, but those tannins are just too much. This wine was not produced in 2013 or 2014, and this 2015 release counts 1,000 bottles and 200 magnums. In 2013, all the fruit went to the Brunello Vecchie Vigne instead. My big-picture takeaway is that I'd like to see more Sangiovese purity, but hats-off to the impeccable winemaking.

The 2015 Siro Pacenti Brunello di Montalcino Riserva PS takes no prisoners with its bouquet of licorice-infused blackberry, cherry, mocha and balsamic spice. It brightens up with time in the glass, adding contrasting dried florals and notes of crushed stone. Silky-smooth and perfectly polished, without a hard edge in sight, this boasts an amazing density of dark fruits complemented by hints of savory herbs and tobacco. You can hardly feel its aggressive tannins settling in until the very end, as the palate aches under an air of violet florals and salty mineral tones. This is a large-scaled and strapping wine that flaunts its oak influence and will require a number of years in the cellar to properly integrate it.