Biondi-Santi

Why we follow Biondi-Santi

The estate

Clemente Santi was bottling single-varietal Sangiovese at Il Greppo in the 1860s and took a medal for his 1865. But it is his grandson Ferruccio Biondi Santi who is credited with Brunello di Montalcino as we know it — the 1888, made from a massal selection of the best Sangiovese Grosso on the estate, fermented as a single variety when everyone else was blending, and left for years in large Slavonian oak. Tancredi followed and planted the estate's oldest surviving vineyard in 1936. Franco inherited Il Greppo in 1970 with about four hectares under vine, grew it to roughly twenty-five, isolated the BBS11 Sangiovese clone with the University of Florence, and spent forty years refusing to put the wine in barrique. The Descours family's EPI group agreed a majority stake in late 2016 and completed in 2017. Giampiero Bertolini runs the company; Federico Radi is technical director.

The vineyards

Around 150 hectares in total, of which roughly 32 to 33 are under vine across five sites — the home estate at Il Greppo south-east of Montalcino, plus Scarnacuoia, Pievecchia, I Pieri and Ribusuoli. Altitude runs from about 250 metres at Pievecchia to around 560 at the top of Il Greppo, mostly facing east. Soils shift site to site: galestro and limestone on the terraces at Il Greppo and I Pieri, heavier clay at Pievecchia. A 2019 study with Pedro Parra split the holdings into twelve parcels, now picked and vinified separately. The vineyards take roughly 600 hours a hectare a year against a Tuscan average nearer 200 to 300. There is no organic certification; the current programme is regenerative, aimed at rebuilding soil organic matter.

In the glass

Vine age decides everything here. Fruit from vines under ten years old goes to the Rosso, ten to twenty-five to the Brunello Annata, and only vines over twenty-five to the Riserva. About five hectares planted between 1930 and 1972 — pre-clonal, massal-selection material — feed the Riserva. Indigenous yeasts, fermentation across concrete, steel and upright Slavonian vats, then ageing in large Slavonian botti. No new oak and no barrique, ever. The Annata takes roughly two to three years in wood depending on the vintage, the Riserva three, plus a minimum of three more in bottle. The Riserva has been declared just over forty times in more than 130 years. The estate also holds its wines back and releases later than the DOCG requires.

With Lamont’s

Offered through the Private Cellar Selection. Register your interest and we will contact you when the next allocation is confirmed.

Somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 bottles a year across the whole range, and Australia sees very little of it. Register your interest and we will contact you ahead of the next release.