2019 Ciacci - Brunello di Montalcino Pianrosso

Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona traces its roots to a seventeenth-century palazzo built by the Bishop of Montalcino, later purchased by the Ciacci family in 1877. The estate took its current name after Elda Ciacci married Count Alberto Piccolomini d'Aragona, a direct descendant of Pope Pius II. When the widowed Countess Elda died without heirs in 1985, she left the entire property to Giuseppe Bianchini, the estate's longtime farmer, who transformed it into a serious Brunello producer before his sudden death in 2004. His children, Paolo and Lucia, along with the next generation of the family, run the winery today.

Pianrosso is a single-vineyard Brunello sourced from the estate's oldest and most prized parcel, the Vigna di Pianrosso, an eleven-hectare plot in the southeastern reaches of Montalcino near Castelnuovo dell'Abate, sitting between 240 and 360 meters with a south-southwest exposure. The 2019 grapes were picked between mid-September and early October, a classic harvest window, then fermented before aging in Slavonian oak casks for around thirty-six months, well beyond Brunello's minimum requirement.

The wine opens with an expansive bouquet of dried cherry, plum tart, and rose potpourri, joined by notes of Earl Grey tea, cinnamon, and licorice. Any oak influence folds into underbrush and grilled herb rather than standing apart. The palate is full-bodied, thick, and velvety, carried by firm, well-integrated acidity into a long, elegant finish. It pairs beautifully with grilled steak, aged pecorino, or sautéed wild mushrooms.