Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona - Brunello di Montalcino DOCG - Cru Pianrosso - 2020

97/100 points Cru Pianrosso Brunello from Piccolomini from the southern part of the Brunello DOCG, Castelnuovo dell'Abate.

Ruby red wine with garnet glints. In the nose balsamic, spicy sensations, eucalyptus, cloves, berries, bay leaves, dried violets and tobacco. In the mouth the wine is full, beautifully layered, warm, with velvety tannins in the long persistent warm finish.

The Pianrosso vineyard of Piccolomini, 11.7 ha, is located in the southern part of the Brunello DOCG. The soil type is mainly marl. The vineyard is located at an altitude of 240 to 360 meters. The grapes are picked by hand in September and carefully selected for quality and then softly pressed. Fermentation takes place in large steel vats, under a controlled temperature. The must is gently pumped around several times a day. The further maturation of the wine takes place in Slavonian oak barrels of 20 to 62 hl. for a period of 36 months. After this, the wine is bottled. In the bottle, the wine refines for a period of 8 months.

A nice wine/food combination for this Cru Pianrosso Brunello is steak Fiorentina.

About Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona
The winery was founded in 1985 and is located in the southern part of the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, in Castelnuovo dell'Abate. In total, the company has 55 hectares of vineyards. The owners of the company are Paolo and Lucia Bianchini.

98/100 James Suckling

Intense, vibrant aromas of strawberries and raspberries, together with cola and floral notes. Milk and mint nuances, too. Shows a lot of licorice elegance and blood-orange freshness on both the nose and palate with firm, velvety tannins and well-packed, brilliant acidity and a polished finish. Good aftertaste and amazing potential. Very classic. Drinkable now, but best from 2025.

93/100 Robert Parker

The Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona 2020 Brunello di Montalcino Pianrosso (with 43,000 bottles made along with some larger formats) is a little overdone in my opinion in terms of ripeness and its powerful 15.5% alcoholic content. The bouquet reveals dark fruit aromas, cherry liqueur, brandied plum and sweet crème de cassis. This is a thickly grained Brunello with a soft, richly textured core. I recommend a medium-term drinking window, although that touch of tannic astringency might never fully integrate.