Cantina Contucci, history and tradition of Nobile di Montepulciano

 

For those (like me) who are used to wandering around cellars, visiting a winery almost always means being in rural contexts, where the owner, after a day's work in the vineyard, often welcomes you even before to have time to change his clothes.

Instead it’s much less usual to visit a winery located inside one of the most beautiful and characteristic historical centers of our country, moreover inside a building of architectural and pictorial interest, directly overlooking the main square of the city.

If now you are wondering where this “singularity” is possible, the answer can be only one: inside Montepulciano, and more precisely at Cantina Contucci, undoubtedly betwwen the wineries with the greatest tradition and evaluation of the appellation.

We were welcomed by Andrea Contucci - sociable and very kindly person - as well as the commercial reference of the winery and the latest generation of the family, one of the oldest and most known in Montepulciano.

A dynasty more than a, family which has always been involved in activities related to agriculture, and which for almost 500 years (more precisely since 1646) has been dealing with wine, from the beginning vinified and aged in the historic cellar of Palazzo Contucci.

Today the company covers an estate of about 170 hectares, of which about 21 are planted with vineyards, located in three different areas of the appellation and with a production close to 100,000 bottles/year.

Five Nobile di Montepulciano’s labels are produced, all characterized by yields around 55-60q/h, well below the standard 80q/h allowed by the disciplinary.

The vinification is carried out in steel vats with fermentation lasting 15/20 days, while the aging takes place in different sizes wood for a rather long period, ranging from a minimum of 24 to a maximum of 36 months (depending on the label).

The wines can certainly be defined as traditional and with a well-defined style, made of an almost "dogmatic" respect for the characteristics of the terroir and a wise use of wood, aimed at refining and making it more complex - but without distorting - the olfactory and gustatory profile of the wine (maked with a majority of Sangiovese grapes, called Prugnolo Gentile in Montepulciano).

Remarkable - in all labels tasted – the coherence and the persistence, as well as the structure, marked by a perfect acidity/tannin combination, able to guarantee great longevity to wines.

Longevity which has always been one of the main characteristics of the wines of this cellar, an aspect demonstrated by the numerous vertical tastings made with great success in recent decades and by the further presence of a "historic cellar", inside which they are preserved - perfectly intact and still today drinkable - bottles with even more than a century (the oldest present vintage is 1887).

As anticipated, at the end of the splendid tour of the building and the cellar - which alone would have been worth the visit - it was the turn of the wine tasting, and after having "vinified" the mouth with Rosso di Montepulciano 2018 (fruity but with splendid balance and drinkability), we started with the different corporate labels of Nobile di Montepulciano.

Nobile 2016 (vintage version), undoubtedly the most known and commercialized wine of the winery, was characterized by an open nose and by an important but at the same time pleasant spiciness.

Nobile “Pietra Rossa” 2015, one of two crus of the company, was - within an high average level - the most convincing tasting for me. An elegant wine,  marked by great finesse both on the nose and in the mouth, with a tiptoe entry but of admirable length and with excellent clean tannins.

Nobile “Mulinvecchio” 2015, the other label coming from a single vineyard, instead stood out for a more modern and international style, with a nose more marked by sweet and spicy notes and above all by soft and velvet tannins, while remaining largely in the groove of the style of the cellar.

Nobile Riserva 2015 - despite my expectations - turned out to be an already balanced wine with fairly smooth tannins, similar but for many aspects more ready and enjoyable than the "vintage" version.

Nobile “Palazzo Contucci” 2015 (the last born of the family, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Palazzo and the result of selection and following assembly of the two crus) turned out to be - in my personal opinion - the most enigmatic of the series, a wine from structure a little higher than all the others but actually more compressed and backward in its development. Undoubtedly a wine to wait for a few months (at least) in the bottle, but still with considerable potential.

At the end, we went out happy and satisfied, with our small supply of bottles and with the memory of a unique experience, which we can only recommend to all those who think of wine not only as a (splendid) alcoholic liquid but also - and above all - as an integral aspect of the history and culture of our nation.