Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of ripe dark-skinned fruit, forest floor, rose and wild mint shape the enticing nose. Elegantly structured and full of flavor, the linear, focused palate delivers mature Marasca cherry, blood orange, licorice and tobacco set against a backbone of refined tannins. Drink 2023 though 2035.
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Decanter
A cask rather than vineyard selection, Conti Costanti’s Riserva is crafted from barrels that demonstrate the greatest tannic structure and acidity for long ageing. The 2015 is undoubtedly powerful with masses of grainy tannins and concentration, but it still captures the vintage’s generous and affable personality. Replete with black cherry, blackberry, wet forest earth, star anise and cinnamon, its sweet, ripe fruit is countered by a savoury leather element. It carries its size with ease and grace - almost irresistible now, there's so much there for years of drinking pleasure.
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Wine Spectator
A supple, lightweight style, yet no shortage of layers, delivering strawberry, cherry, plum and earth flavors. Firm and dense, reveals a lingering aftertaste of fruit, earth and tobacco, underscored by beefy tannins.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Boasting dark fruit, scorched earth and savory spice, the Conti Costanti 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is a wine of broad shoulders and a lasting aromatic imprint. It is fleshy and even a bit flashy, thanks to that abundant and generous aromatic display. To the palate, this Riserva is soft, thickly textured and enriched by the ripeness of its fruit fiber and the warmth of the Tuscan sun. This wine draws its fruit from a 10-hectare site with Galestro soils. Production is limited to 9,000 bottles.
Among Italy's elite red grape varieties, Sangiovese has the perfect intersection of bright red fruit and savory earthiness and is responsible for the best red wines of Tuscany. While it is best known as the chief component of Chianti, it is also the main grape in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and reaches the height of its power and intensity in the complex, long-lived Brunello di Montalcino. Somm Secret—Sangiovese doubles under the alias, Nielluccio, on the French island of Corsica where it produces distinctly floral and refreshing reds and rosés.
Famous for its bold, layered and long-lived red, Brunello di Montalcino, the town of Montalcino is about 70 miles south of Florence, and has a warmer and drier climate than that of its neighbor, Chianti. The Sangiovese grape is king here, as it is in Chianti, but Montalcino has its own clone called Brunello.
The Brunello vineyards of Montalcino blanket the rolling hills surrounding the village and fan out at various elevations, creating the potential for Brunello wines expressing different styles. From the valleys, where deeper deposits of clay are found, come wines typically bolder, more concentrated and rich in opulent black fruit. The hillside vineyards produce wines more concentrated in red fruits and floral aromas; these sites reach up to over 1,600 feet and have shallow soils of rocks and shale.
Brunello di Montalcino by law must be aged a minimum of four years, including two years in barrel before realease and once released, typically needs more time in bottle for its drinking potential to be fully reached. The good news is that Montalcino makes a “baby brother” version. The wines called Rosso di Montalcino are often made from younger vines, aged for about a year before release, offer extraordinary values and are ready to drink young.