Giannikos Winery - Conti Costanti

The noble Costanti family is one of the oldest families of Montalcino. The current Conte, Andrea, is a geologist and has been at the helm of the winery since 1983. He knows his trade: the small domain is highly praised among connoisseurs. The wine estate is located two kilometers east of Montalcino and the soil is the famous Tuscan Galestro. The vineyards are high for Brunello: between 330 and 440 meters. The highest vineyards were seen in the nineties as the absolute limit for ripening Sangiovese, but now, with climate change, people think differently. Costanti benefits from that height: the wines are fresher and more delicate than average. Andrea believes in a special system of maturation. After fermentation on stainless steel, all wines are placed in 500 liter barrels from 14 to 21 days, of which a maximum of 20% are new. After a year, the Rosso goes into the bottle. The rest matures in Slovenian oak barrels of an average of 3,000 liters. After another year, it is determined what the special Rosso (Vermiglio) is made of and it is then bottled. The rest ripens for another year as Brunello. After these three years of maturation, it is determined whether Riserva will be made and, if so, which barrels are eligible. These are the ones with the highest acidity and firmest tannin, which qualify for a long bottle aging. The Riserva then matures for at least another two years in the bottle, the Brunello one year. Incidentally, this ingenious system lies between 'cuvée selection' and 'vineyard selection': the barrels are selected per vineyard and usually the same pieces of vineyard end up in the same wine. Ian d'Agata of Vinous gave away 98 points in his assessment of almost 200 Brunelli in 2018: to the Riserva 2012 of Costanti! The 'regular' Brunello 2013 received 96 points from him and is therefore also in the top ten. There is only one downside to Costanti: the Brunello, especially the Riserva, needs time to mature to fully bloom!