THE WINE

Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2012 by Biondi Santi is dedicated to the unforgettable Franco Biondi-Santi, the gentleman of Brunello. It was born in the vineyards between the ages of 15 and 30 of the prestigious Tenuta Greppo, a historic family estate located in an area with an extraordinary winemaking vocation for Sangiovese. The Sangiovese Grosso grapes are harvested in the second half of September. The vinification process takes place at a controlled temperature, at the end of which the wine is placed in Slavonian oak barrels, where it matures for 3 years. Once bottled, it rests for a further 6 months before being placed on the market. A red wine of immense finesse and balance, and incredible longevity: from 20 to 40 years. Awesome. Limited edition.

THE HISTORY

The story of Brunello del Greppo begins with Clemente Santi, nephew of Giorgio Santi, of whom Prof. Baccio Baccetti, in the publication “Cultura e Università  a Siena (Culture and University in Siena) - July 1993 in the chapter on Naturalists from Siena writes, among other things: 

in 1867 (an oenologically outstanding acknowledgement given that the French at that time considered themselves to be the only producers of high quality wine worldwide). He made red wines suitable for ageing and had identified racking and barrel-ageing techniques which were more advanced than those used by his peers. 

Ferruccio Biondi Santi set extremely severe production standards. Other early 19th-century producers obtained important diplomas for their so-called Brunello wines: Paccagnini, Anghirelli, Angelini, Vieri Padelletti, but no one succeeded in continuing the production of their wines beyond the end of the First World War. On the strength of the extraordinary experience of his maternal grandfather, Clemente Santi, Ferruccio skilfully ran the Greppo estate and, as often happens in the most fortunate historical decisions, his success was due partly to adversity: in the middle of the 19th century, oidium (powdery mildew), followed by phyloxera and then downy mildew, struck Europe and consequently Greppo. 
The phyloxera posed an unprecedented threat to the survival of his vineyards.
But while the winegrowers tried to create red wines which were suitable for drinking immediately (see also the governance of new wine) and therefore capable of generating quick profits from the new vineyards, he looked towards new horizons, making the singular decision to make a wine which he believed would be suitable for long ageing, vinifying 100% Sangiovese. In 1932, he was described as the inventor of Brunello by an Interministerial Commission, which studied the Chianti district, including Montalcino. Towards the end of the 19th century, he began the methodical mass selection of Sangiovese on his Greppo estate. 
In the end, he completely replanted all of his vineyards, grafting them on wild vine cuttings, with buds taken from mother plants identified at Greppo: in a certain sense, he pre-empted the Tuscan trend for producing full-bodied red wines, vinifying 100% Sangiovese, by about a century. He died in 1917. 

Other winemaking estates all over the Italian Peninsula requested his advice: from the Lugana wine in Desenzano sul Garda, to Chianti in the Siena district, from Fiorano del Principe Boncompagni in Roma to Cirò in Calabria. His final act, in March 1970, was the topping up of his old bottles of Brunello Reserve 1888  1891  1925 - 1945, in the Greppo Wine Cellar, in the presence of Mario Soldati, Luigi Veronelli and Paolo Maccherini: we can definitely say that that act, perhaps better then any other, represents his career as an expert oenologist, and still confirms the supremacy, diversity and typicality of Brunello del Greppo today. 
Brunello di Montalcino Biondi Santi touches the peak of its fame and splendour, enjoying the very highest esteem of the world’s most attentive and refined connoisseurs. 

In this scenario, which has witnessed an exponential growth in the number of hectares registered for the cultivation of Brunello (from 76 hectares in 1967 to the current 2100 in 2009), Franco Biondi Santi has increased the production of Brunello del Greppo from the 4 hectares cultivated until his father death, to the current 25. He has continued to pursue strict, traditional agronomy and cellaring practices to consolidate the typical character and improve the quality of Brunello del Greppo, convinced that he can equal (given the same use of the land and vineyards) his great 100 year-old Brunello Reserves. 

Thanks to the constant personal international promotion of his wines, since 1970 Franco Biondi Santi has succeeded in creating the understanding and appreciation of the remarkable typical character and quality of his Brunello del Greppo. The future continuity of Greppo is represented by Franco two children, Jacopo and Alessandra, who are both working at Greppo already: Jacopo, with his vivid imagination in relation to wines (firmly convinced of the typical character of Brunello del Greppo), Alessandra involved in promoting the estate.