Brunello di Montalcino

Elegant, harmonious and with a long aromatic persistence, Brunello di Montalcino was born in the heart of Tuscany, in a landscape rich in history and beauty. With its intense, fruity bouquet and full, refined flavour, it is one of the most famous Italian reds in the world.

The area in which Brunello di Montalcino is produced covers just over 2000 hectares under vine, with very complex soils, warm and humid in the south, composed of marl and limestone, and clay and sand in the west.

In 1960 it was the first wine to receive DOC status and in 1980 it was awarded DOCG status. Before being put on the market, it requires long ageing periods in oak barrels of at least two years and a rest period of five years after the harvest. The Riserva version, on the other hand, must rest for at least six years. It is therefore a wine of great longevity that requires lengthy ageing before reaching its maximum level of quality.

There are also outstanding vintages, for example 1945, 1955, 1961, 1970, 1975, 1985, 1995, 1997, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2016.

It was consecrated thanks to the intuition of Clemente Biondi Santi, a pharmacist from Montalcino, who was the first to vinify Sangiovese Grosso. The result was a wine of rare splendour: the world realizes that in 1865, at the Exhibition of Natural and Industrial Products of Tuscany in Florence, when Clemente won the first medals. There were several local families that, following Santi's example, began to produce Brunello, then in 1885 his nephew Ferruccio Biondi Santi inherited the estate, while his passion for oenology refined to such an extent that in 1932 the Ministry of Agriculture wrote a report on Tuscan viticulture declaring that Brunello wine was 'a recent creation of Dr. Ferruccio Biondi Santi of Montalcino'.

The bouquet of Brunello appeals to everyone, with red fruits under spirits, complex notes of vanilla, tea, coffee, earth and sealed by balsamic echoes, which finish the organoleptic picture. It is a wine for which much patience is needed, because it takes years for it to unleash its full potential: tannins and acidity must refine, redefine and merge to give the wine that complexity we all know. A wonderful wine, we should all try at least once in a lifetime.