Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 'Tenuta Greppo' 2012 (750 ml. wooden box) Biondi Santi

THE WINE

TheBrunello di Montalcino Reserve 2012OfBiondi SantiIt is dedicated to Franco Biondi-Santi. It was produced with the clone. Sangiovese Grosso BBS11, identified and selected by Biondi-Santi to the Tenuta Greppo in the 1970s. Grapes from exclusively the oldest vines over 25 years old were used. It is a typical expression of the winemaking vision of Franco Biondi Santi. Its distinctive freshness gives a wonderful liveliness to the monumental and at the same time refined structure. The bouquet opens like a symphony of soft and fruity aromas that evolve into a crescendo of notes of aromatic herbs, licorice, and balsamic sensations. On the palate, it is elegant and savory with crunchy tannins. The finish is long, clean, and fragrant.

THE STORY

The story of Brunello del Greppo begins with Clemente. Santi. Nephew ofGiorgio SantiOf which Professor Baccio Baccetti in the publication "Culture and University? in Siena" - July 1993 - in the chapter "Sienese Naturalists" writes, among other things:

The nephewClementeSon of Luigi Santi Petronilla Canali, a graduate in pharmacy from Pisa and a well-known writer, had vast land holdings in Montalcino and Pienza, and dedicated a large part of his work to agriculture, particularly at Greppo, the farm owned by his mother Canali.
His knowledge of chemistry and science helped him elevate his winemaking techniques to enviable levels during the last years of his life.
Before receiving recognition for his "chosen red wine (Brunello) of 1865," his Moscatello was also awarded at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1867 (an extraordinary enological recognition because, at that time, the French considered themselves the only producers in the world of quality wines). He produced red wines suitable for aging; he had identified racking and aging techniques in barrels that were more advanced than those of all his contemporaries.

Ferruccio Biondi SantiEstablished very strict production standards. Other producers in the early 1800s received important diplomas for their wines called "Brunello": Paccagnini, Anghirelli, Angelini, Vieri Padelletti, but no one was able to maintain continuity in their wines beyond the end of World War I. Ferruccio, building on the extraordinary experience of his maternal grandfather Clemente Santi, He dedicated himself competently to the Greppo business and, as often happens in the happiest historical decisions, owes something to adversity: in the mid-1800s, powdery mildew, then phylloxera, and then downy mildew struck Europe and therefore also the Greppo.
He found himself facing an unprecedented threat due to phylloxera for the survival of his vineyards.
But while the winemakers tried to quickly bottle the red wines (see also the "governo" method of the new wine) for a fast financial return from the new vineyards, he looked towards new horizons and wanted to diversify with a wine that he believed would be long-lasting by vinifying in purity the Sangiovese. In 1932, he was described as the inventor of Brunello by an Interministerial Commission that studied the territory of Chianti, including Montalcino. In his company del Greppo, already? at the end of the 1800s he began a systematic mass selection of the Sangiovese. 
In the end, he completely replanted all his vineyards, grafting them onto wild rootstocks, using buds taken from those mother plants identified at Greppo: in a certain sense, he anticipated by about a century the trend in Tuscany of producing full-bodied red wines, vinifying in purity the... Sangiovese. He died in 1917.

Other wineries also sought his advice from one end of the Peninsula to the other: from Lugana wine in Desenzano to... Garda, to Chianti in the Sienese area, at Fiorano of Prince Boncompagni in Rome, at Cirò in Calabria. His last act was, in March 1970, the ceremony of refilling his old bottles of Brunello Riserva 1888 - 1891 - 1925 - 1945, in the Cantina del Greppo, in the presence of Mario Soldati., Luigi Veronelli and Paolo Maccherini: it can certainly be said that in that act, perhaps better than in any other, lies his long career as an expert winemaker, and that it still today confirms the supremacy, diversity, and typicity of Brunello del Greppo. Brunello di Montalcino Biondi Santi In short, it touches the peak of its fame and splendor, from the most attentive and refined admirers around the world.

But that doesn't mean he rested on his father's laurels. In the meantime, the... D.O.C. had pushed other producers to plant grape varieties and improve techniques in the hope of being able to take advantage of the elevated image of Brunello. In the presence of such a scenario, which has seen an exponential growth in the number of hectares registered for Brunello (from 76 hectares in 1967 to the current 2100 in 2009), Franco Biondi Santi He increased the production of Brunello del Greppo from 4 hectares, at the death of his father, to the current 25. He continued the strict traditional agronomic and winemaking practices to consolidate the typicity and improve the quality of Brunello del Greppo, certain that he would match (given the same use of land and grape varieties) the great century-old reserves of his Brunello.
Thanks to a personal and constant promotion of its wines around the world, Franco Biondi Santi Since the '70s, he has succeeded in making people understand and appreciate the extraordinary typicality and quality of his Brunello del Greppo. In the future, the continuity of Greppo is represented by his two sons. Franco, , Jacopo and Alessandra both interested in the Greppo: Jacopo With a vivid imagination of wines (firmly convinced of the typicity of Brunello del Greppo), Alessandra is involved in promoting the company.