Di Costanzo
The exciting Cabernet from rising star Massimo di Costanzo illustrates how much Napa’s new generation is shifting to a more savoury, complex and terroir-driven style. His wine shows why Coombsville, tucked in Napa’s southeast corner and cooled by breezes from San Pablo Bay, is now one of the valley’s most fascinating appellations.
Di Costanzo fell in love specifically with the volcanic soils of the 10.5ha Farella Vineyard. Though his first commercial Cabernet release was 2010, he says 2013 was the first vintage that truly reflects the kind of refined, layered wines he wants to make.
His route to his own label started with a viticulture and oenology degree at the UC Davis, then time in Italy at Tignanello and later in South Africa with rebel Adi Badenhorst. Back in Napa, he worked at Ovid and aged 26 became assistant winemaker at cult winery Screaming Eagle. ‘But the idea of making my own wines kept nagging at me,’ he says. ‘I had a hard time putting my soul into someone else’s wines.’
Quiet and intense, Di Constanzo managed to score enough grapes from the Farella Vineyard in 2010 for four barrels of a 100% Cabernet with the kind of minerality he prizes. By 2015 he was focusing on Di Costanzo full time, and in 2016 lined up the Rafael Vineyard at the base of Mt Veeder for a second Napa label, adding one in Sonoma for 2017. His goal is to achieve wine as an ‘art form’, and I’d say he’s on his way.
‘The idea of making my own wines kept nagging at me. I had a hard time putting my soul into someone else’s wines’ Massimo di Costanzo