2012 Gianni Brunelli Amor Constante Toscana IGT 750 ml

Overseeing the vines at Gianni Brunelli estate is Paolo Vagaggini, the guy nicknamed “Mr. Sangiovese,” Wine Enthusiast’s Winemaker of the Year nominee. Vagaggini’s 2012 Amor Constante Toscana IGT is plush and radiant, much like the Tuscan hills where it is grown. James Suckling awarded the wine 94 points and a place on his 2017 list of Top 100 Italian Wines. A mere 166 cases were produced, and just one-third of that will ever make it stateside—and we have all of it. Powerful aromas of wild red berry fruit, savory oak, and garrigue. Mouth-filling, layered with generous black cherry, and chocolate-covered raspberry fruits tinged with wild herbs and lofty earth notes. 

If you find yourself in Montalcino, take a short bike ride southeast and pedal up the hill to Monte Amiata. There you’ll find the Gianni Brunelli estate, where perfectly tended rows of Sangiovese and Merlot unfold against a backdrop of cypress-dotted Tuscan hills. Walking the 11-acre vineyard at the Gianni Brunelli estate, the vines are awash in light. As the Tuscan sun shines down, sparkling soils of calcareous-marly schists that reflect the light and heat back to the vines. 

The effect yields more than a pretty picture—the reflected energy allows Sangiovese and Merlot to ripen fully and evenly, resulting in a “supple, succulent red,” as Antonio Galloni described the 2012 Amor Costante. 2012 was a particularly excellent year in Tuscany—James Suckling called it a “rockstar vintage”—as a long, sun-bathed growing season, yielded a tremendous crop of vibrant, ripe wines. 

Owner Laura Brunelli, wife of the late Gianni Brunelli, manages the estate today and is deeply involved in its success. Along with Vagaggini, who Wine Enthusiast called, “a prolific oenologist and one of the world’s leading experts on Sangiovese,” Brunelli is constantly raising the bar. The 2012 Amor Costante Toscana IGT, in all of its silky, red-fruited splendor, is all the proof you need to understand—if you can’t make it to Montalcino for that bike ride.