Biondi Santi TENUTA GREPPO BIONDI SANTI Brunello di Montalcino 2016

Description

From a reference vintage, Brunello di Montalcino Biondi-Santi 2016 reveals a compact dark fruit, robust material fiber and power. You almost “bite into” the Brunello di Montalcino Biondi-Santi 2016, you can taste a fine grain and fresh acidity that is the hallmark of this estate. The fruitiness is given by dried cherry, blue flowers and candied orange peel. On the nose there are also tobacco, balsamic herbs and undergrowth. Brunello di Montalcino Biondi-Santi 2016 is wonderfully rich in this balanced growing season. It certainly needs more time to come together with the utmost precision, but the elegance of the wine is a certainty.

It is a rare phenomenon that a wine can trace its origins back to a single man. Brunello di Montalcino, however, owes its existence to Ferruccio Biondi-Santi and his fame to his family. Now in the seventh generation of winemakers, the Biondi-Santi family continues to produce wines renowned for their elegance and extraordinary longevity. Located in the heart of Montalcino, the Tenuta Greppo estate extends over 25 hectares of vineyards on soils rich in sandstone and marl, perfect for the cultivation of Sangiovese Grosso. Defenders of a rich enological heritage, the family continues to use traditional methods started over a century ago to bring out the unique characteristics of Brunello di Montalcino.

Since the mid-1800s Clemente Santi, writer and scientist, has been studying the quality of the vineyards and viticulture of the Greppo Estate in Montalcino. Long before it became standard practice, Clemente chose to focus on red wines suitable for aging. Clemente’s innovative winemaking practices earned him considerable recognition, including an award for his “selected red wine (Brunello) 1865” at the 1867 Universal Exposition in Paris.

Following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Ferruccio Biondi continued to experiment in the vineyards. In fact, Ferruccio was so proud of his grandfather’s work that he combined the two surnames and became Ferruccio Biondi-Santi. Ferruccio worked hard to combat the challenges posed by powdery mildew and phylloxera. From his selection of Sangiovese Massale, the Brunello Bio-Santi clones, or BBS 11, are now very famous. Ferruccio also took the courageous decision to bottle a 100% Sangiovese wine. With this first bottling, the birth of the modern Brunello di Montalcino begins.

After Ferruccio’s death in 1917, his son Tancredi Biondi-Santi continued the line of succession and carried on the family tradition with meticulous care. He looked to the past for the future, keeping the old vintages in the cellar. In this way, Biondi-Santi was finally able to show the world how long-lived and complex a Brunello di Montalcino could be. In 1966, Brunello di Montalcino became DOC and the Italian government turned to Tancredi to assist him in drafting the regulation.

Tancredi took the cellar to new levels, but it was Franco’s son who helped to release the potential of this historic wine on the global market.

Today Franco’s son, Jacopo, and his son, Tancredi, represent the sixth and seventh generation that carry on the family legacy.