2021 Costanti Brunello di Montalcino

ne of Montalcino’s most historic, the Costanti estate has been in the hands of Andrea Costanti since 1983. Year after year he makes decisive, ageworthy Brunello from his north- to northwest-facing vineyards just east of town. The 2021 is no exception and will require time in the cellar before disclosing its deeply embedded intricacies. Discreet whiffs of beeswax and flint eventually cede to violet and dark-toned fruit. The palate is equally restrained and tight yet precisely sculpted. A core of wild forest berry is well corseted, all elevated by a salivating crunchiness.

The name Brunello was all but born on this hill. In 1870, Count Tito Costanti took an 1865 wine from Colle al Matrichese to the provincial exhibition in Siena and called it Brunello, one of the first to do so, and the family has made wine here since at least 1555. Andrea Costanti, a geology student when his great-uncle handed him the estate in 1982, has run it ever since with a geologist’s attention to soil and a declared distaste for too much oak. The vineyards sit a mile east of the town at 400 to 450 metres on galestro, and the 2021 was fermented in steel, then given twelve months in Allier tonneaux and twenty-four in Slavonian oak casks. Nothing about it is loud. In the glass, it pours a lustrous mid ruby. The nose is all noble restraint at first, then opens to purple flowers, eucalyptus and sweet mint, Mediterranean brush, perfumed wild raspberry and a cool thread of tobacco and cedar. On the palate, it is medium-bodied and tense, with crushed Marasca cherry, spiced orange zest and star anise set against chalky, fine-grained tannins and tangy acidity, and a long, mineral finish still folded in on itself. O’Keefe gave it 99 and called Andrea’s wines among the very best in Montalcino year after year; Larner, Vinous and Spectator all sit at 95. At $99.99 against $130 elsewhere, from one of the two estates that gave Brunello its name, this is the bottle of the 2021 campaign to put six of in the cellar. Drink 2027 to 2043.