2010 Italy

Until 31st August 2017 this product is discounted by up to 40%. Prices shown include discount; no further discount will be applied at checkout.

This stunning passito, a sweet wine made from grapes that have been dried to concentrate their juice, exudes characters of ripe citrus and honeyed lemon on the nose. The palate is incredibly concentrated while the finish is rich, poised and balanced.
Katherine Dart MW, Berrys Bros. & Rudd

This Brunello di Montalcino was bottled in September 2014, having spent 3.5 years in large slavonian oak botti (the flagship Ugolaia sees chestnut). Filippo recalls the late harvest of 10th October, giving a richer alcohol that balance out the crunchy structure.

The nose is composed, tranquil, harmonious, perfectly poised, with brambly/strawberry/iron fruit, both fruity but also restrained. Fermentation in cement for 25 days, the result is a racy, cassis/redcurrant crunch, with transparent, vivid, delicious cassis freshness, energy, plenty of ‘ping’; a classic Lisini Brunello, with fruit and refined tannins. Tasted in Jan 2015
David Berry Green

Definitely more savoury, more mysterious, with a darker hue, earthier even, than the playful fruitiness of (baby sister) Villero. Tasted from barrel just prior to bottling in July 2014, Monprivato 2010 displays an intense spicy incense character; the palate suggests essential oils, together with exquisite balance and composure. Great.
David Berry Green

The Riserva spends an additional six months in oak, which gives a slightly darker fruit character, more savoury aromas and slightly grainier tannin structure. There is a balsamic note and richness to the core that enables the Riserva to shine and express its individuality.
Drink 2017-2027.

Focussed, yet forever gentle and restrained, it’s a kernel of sage, dried rose, clove and loganberry; the fruit from his Castiglione Falletto vineyards of Valletti and Villero ensuring the noblest and silkiest of perfumes, complementing that of La Morra’s Gallinotto. On the palate sits elegantly briary bracken-like fruit; very suave, fluid, with plenty of nuance and savouriness. At its core a glint of red currant fruit. Very promising. A classic Barolo.
David Berry Green

Mario’s wines are always incredibly charming, supple and eloquent of the vintage; the 2010 is absolutely no different. This is very reminiscent of a Premier Cru Chambolle-Musigny, such is the purity and delicacy of the fruit and the finesse to the tannins. The palate has wonderfully sweet, pure fruit which has notes of almond and graphite. This is a hugely enjoyable wine and will drink surprisingly early, 2017 onwards, but I have no doubt that it will see many a year in the cellar.
Gary Owen - Private Account Manager

As soon as you pour the wine its remarkable nose immediately fills the air. Sweet cherry and raspberry dominate the lifted, beautifully fragrant nose. These are joined by crushed mint, sweet rose petals and just a very hint of graphite. The palate is wonderfully focussed, reassuringly tight, given the future this has ahead of it. The raspberry fruit is there again on the palate as are the rose notes, there is a fantastic intensity to the palate yet it remains wonderfully focussed. All this is rounded off with a lovely savoury garrigue-esque note. 2020-2040
Matthew Tipping, Fine Wine Sales Manager

The 2010 Brunello di Montalcino Annata was among my favourite Brunello releases earlier this year, so I had high hopes for the 2010 riserva. It’s always immensely satisfying when those expectations are met and in this case, exceeded. An immediate superiority to the Annata is obvious on the nose, with an extra layer or two of depth, complexity and focus. The notes of ripe red fruit, spices and grilled steak are compelling and implore you to taste it. It is of course still very young, but even at this stage the concentration and impeccable balance are stunning. All of the above notes are echoed on the palate and combine to create a delightful mouth-feel and a finish which goes on for over a minute. This is a very special wine and one that will make very old bones, if you can resist drinking it while it’s still young.
Chris Pollington, Private Account Manager
 

A hotly-awaited wine, the 2010 is Andrea’s first Riserva since the 2007 vintage. Only 8,000 bottles were made of this profound, deep-garnet beauty from the mythical 2010 vintage. Aged only in large botti, not barriques, the nose is rich with tamarind, kirsch, dark cherry, tobacco and loganberry. It's so finely detailed, yet flows effortlessly, a thread of dark, forest fruit, and white-stone minerality.

Local lad Andrea Mantengoli’s organic fruit, modern approach to winemaking and use of both large Slavonian barrels and small French barriques for ageing, provides a more contemporary expression of Brunello di Montalcino. Indeed so much so that we charged him with making our new own-label Brunello di Montalcino. The seven-hectare property is well located close to neighbours Cerbaiona, on the north-eastern shoulder of Montalcino, blessed with atypically white, tufo, limestone soils.

The ground was hotter in 2010, built up over the long season (as compared to the freshness of 2011), combining to give richer, more balsam notes. A longer, 35-day maceration, without the use of pressed juice, gave a sumptuously suave, free-flowing Barbaresco from the highest, Campo Quadro part of the San Cristoforo vineyard in Neive. There is a distinct distilled tea-tree, rosehip, clove and black-tea core to this gorgeous wine. It's got beautiful lines, very svelte with mocha or coffee bean, along with redcurrant skins.

Destined to be an engineer thanks to a family construction business, Marina rebelled and headed to the vineyards on the family’s 17-hectare estate overlooking Neive, following in the footsteps of her grandmother. Trained in viticulture, she turned the property organic in 1982 (certified in 1993). All the vineyards are grassed over, with the fruit being vinified traditionally in both cement and stainless steel, before being aged in a combination of used French tonneaux and Slavonian botti. She has three Barbaresco vineyards: Basarin, San Cristoforo and San Cristoforo Campo Quadro.

This is made with 55-year-old vine fruit from an exquisite site, right in the heart of a natural amphitheatre close to the village of Barbaresco itself, the soil rich in chalk. Blood-red colour, the nose seduces, as always, with gorgeous, sweet raspberry, kirsch cassis, a hedonistic, velvety texture – held tight with sinewy structure. The palate swells with sumptuous fruit, yet it is chalky and pure, sensational, with such detail – brimming with superlatives.

The father and son team of Alfredo and Luca Roagna are celebrating the completion of their new cantina in Castiglione Falletto, in the heart of La Pira vineyard, a prime location they’ve owned since 1989, but had bought fruit from since the 1950s. Both in their Barolo and Barbaresco estates (15 hectares in total), they pride themselves on their organic, grassed-over vineyards. They’re fortunate to have a wealth of oldvine fruit at their disposal which, of course, they vinify traditionally with extended maceration in large oak barrels.

Only 2,000 bottles of the old-vine La Pira, located under the castello di Castiglione Falletto, were made by the Roagna family in this excellent vintage; rather unsurprisingly given the oldest vine was planted in 1937. Compared to their normal La Pira, this oldvine version is super-suave, with velvety cassis-fruit, underpinned by a cool white-stone – almost marble – core and minerality. It's got that extra gear of fruit but also of purity and balance. This was particularly excellent in 2010; a wine to challenge Mascarello's Monprivato for purity and poise.

The father and son team of Alfredo and Luca Roagna are celebrating the completion of their new cantina in Castiglione Falletto, in the heart of La Pira vineyard, a prime location they’ve owned since 1989, but had bought fruit from since the 1950s. Both in their Barolo and Barbaresco estates (15 hectares in total), they pride themselves on their organic, grassed-over vineyards. They’re fortunate to have a wealth of oldvine fruit at their disposal which, of course, they vinify traditionally with extended maceration in large oak barrels.

Only about 1,500 bottles were made from Roagna's south-west-facing plot that adjoins that of Bruno Giacosa. The sandy talc element of the calcareous soil gives an intriguing clementine-skin character, along with rose-petal purity. Crunchy-cool poise, packed with harmonious detail, a glint of kirsch cassis and red cherry-stone, impeccably dressed; it sets the pulse racing.

The father and son team of Alfredo and Luca Roagna are celebrating the completion of their new cantina in Castiglione Falletto, in the heart of La Pira vineyard, a prime location they’ve owned since 1989, but had bought fruit from since the 1950s. Both in their Barolo and Barbaresco estates (15 hectares in total), they pride themselves on their organic, grassed-over vineyards. They’re fortunate to have a wealth of oldvine fruit at their disposal which, of course, they vinify traditionally with extended maceration in large oak barrels.

The 2010 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is fabulous. Dark cherry, lavender, mint, hard candy and a host of balsamic-inflected notes soar from the glass as this towering, structured Rivera shows off its personality. This is one of the more tannic, backward Riserva of the vintage. As such, demands patience. Just as extraordinary as it was last year, the Riserva once again shows just how magical this vintage was for Andrea Costanti.  Drink: 2022 – 2040
98/100, Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com, Feb 2016

The Costantis are an old Sienese family dating back to the fifteenth century. They appear in the history of Montalcino as being involved in major event which led to the creation of the Republic of Siena in 1555. Fast forward to 1983 when a very young Andrea Costanti took over the family firm and started building the estate into the successful Brunello producer that we know today.

The winemaking style lies somewhere between the arch-traditionalists and the modernists with fermentation in stainless steel with two weeks maceration on the skins, followed by 18 months in 500 litre French oak barrels and 18 months in Slavonian oak botti, before 12 months in bottle before release, with another year in bottle for the riserva.

This Sesti Brunello di Montalcino, bottled in February 2014, was tasted late Jan 2015. Gigi Elisa both pointed out that 2010 was remarkable not just for the quality of the wines but also of the olive oil. Sporting the telltale ‘terra di Argiano’ iron-red ochre colour, their incense-rich, soft, dark quinine, liquorice nutmeg perfumed Brunello is incredibly compact restrained, giving little away still. It has great presence, combining fleshiness with structure, refined, sleek even, cool quinine flavours, sunny, softly-spoken penetrating. ‘Al dente’ with a wonderful raspberry zip, and profound minerality (the result of ancient sedimentary marine life).
David Berry Green

Right from the off this is clearly a serious wine, it has a deep brooding nose with spice, heaps of morello cherry and chocolate notes. The palate is beautifully dense, multi-layered, textured and beautifully done. The morello cherry is there again, this time accompanied by liquorice and smokey notes. The intensity is such that this has a long future ahead of it and long term it is a wine that is sure to enhance the 2010 vintage’s legacy. Drink 2020-2035
Matthew Tipping, Fine Wine Sales Manager

Could it be that in the 2010 vintage, the Monforte vineyard of Gramolere has ‘stolen the show’ from the fêted Verduno site of Monvigliero? This will please Vittore’s Mum (nata Manzoni), from whose family the plot came before being first vinified under the F.lli Alessandria label in 2001. Or maybe it’s just being 400 meters above sea level, with sandier, iron-rich soils and Gramolere’s 45-year-older vines that produce a wine that’s ‘faster off the blocks’? Either way, it’s gorgeously composed, with balsam oil, rich raspberry and wild mint (of which there’s masses in the vineyard); it’s serene, broad and generous in a Brunate-esque way, refreshed with notes of wild thyme, framed by molten tannins. Complete.
David Berry Green

Understated and, at times, frustratingly shy in its youth, the utterly compelling Alessandria wine from the heart of the Monvigliero vineyard seems to bask in the shadow of the more ebullient Gramolere; but then that’s what, in essence, sums up the difference between the Baroli of Verduno and Monforte. From slightly younger vines (35-years-old), the wine from this mid-slope, chalky white, if lower, vineyard is reticent, pale rose-red in colour. There is a distant whiff of delicate floral perfume, a hint of sandalwood, of rose petal, even of nose tingling white pepper that recalls local grape Pelaverga. It’s a silk thread in a glass, slowly unravelling. Patience will be rewarded.
David Berry Green

Monte dei Ragni is a tiny jewel of a Valpolicella wine estate perched at between 250 and 350 metres above sea-level on the vertiginous slopes above Fumane, at the heart of the Valpolicella Classico zone. Only 1,200 bottles of their Amarone are produced.

As with Monte dei Ragni’s Ripasso, the production of this classically proportioned Amarone is very limited (only around 1,900 bottles were made). The fruit is bright and intense on the nose and palate, with plum pudding and mocha richness layered with dried figs and macerated cherry. The mid-palate is plump and the finish is generous. Drink now to 2027.