Biondi Santi Tenuta Greppo Annata Brunello di Montalcino 2015

Biondi Santi Tenuta Greppo Annata Brunello di Montalcino is made from 100 percent Sangiovese. 

The Biondi-Santi flagship wine, the Brunello di Montalcino embodies the spirit of Tenuta Greppo and the signature style of our winemakers, forged over 150 years of history with its balanced combination of fresh elegance, depth and aristocratic personality.

Review:

The Biondi-Santi 2015 Brunello di Montalcino exudes dark, velvety fruit and concentration while maintaining the signature elegance, suppleness and lithe personalty that distinguishes the iconic Il Greppo estate. I found this new release to be quite distinctive and exquisitely beautiful, setting it apart from many of the past vintages we are most familiar with. This 2015 edition is dark, exuberant and bold, but precise, focused and sharp as well. It will live for years in your cellar, but tasted now in its infancy, the wine shows blackberry, dried cherry, plum and dark cassis. Those dark fruit tones segue to a rich presentation of tar, spice, earth, tobacco and sweet balsam herb. The bouquet offers seamless and smooth transitions. This warm and sunny growing season favored richness and phenolic weight. Wines from Biondi-Santi are made for the long haul, and the fresh acidity that characterizes this estate is the principle reason why. However, I'd argue that this wine from 2015 will evolve over the years not only thanks to the freshness but more so thanks to the important structure of this solid and profound wine.

-Wine Advocate 97+ Points

The 2015 Brunello is highly complex, with pine resin, clove, blood orange, and rose-hip. It offers a grounding richness and warmth from the vintage while maintaining transparency and lift. Structured and with a long finish, this bottle showed no sign of demise over several days. Cellar 1-5 years and enjoy over the next 20 years.

-Jeb Dunnuck 97 Points

It is a rare phenomenon that a wine can trace its origins to a single man. Brunello di Montalcino, however, owes its existence to Ferruccio Biondi-Santi and its fame to his family. Now on 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 spreads over 25 hectares of vines on soils rich in heavy stones and marl – perfect for the cultivation of Sangiovese Grosso. Defenders of a rich enological heritage, the family continues to employ traditional vinicultural methods started well over a century ago to highlight the wine’s unique characteristics, or tipicita.

Franco expanded Il Greppo from 4 acres to 25, but continued to be a staunch believer in traditional viniculture. Today, Franco’s son, Jacopo, and his son, Tancredi, represent the sixth and seventh generations carrying on the family legacy.

Starting in the mid-1800s, Clemente Santi, a renowned writer and scientist, recognized the quality of the vineyards and viticulture at Il Greppo. Long before it became standard practice, Clemente chose to focus on red wines suitable for aging, creating racking and barrel-aging practices far more advanced than his peers’. Clemente’s innovative winemaking earned him considerable recognition, including an award for his “select 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 took such pride in the work his grandfather did, he united the two family names and became Ferruccio Biondi-Santi. Ferruccio worked diligently to combat the challenges posed by oidium and phylloxera. He used the work he had already begun on massal selection and identifying mother vines to his advantage, grafting only the best clones on American rootstock and replanting his vineyard with the offspring of the mother clones – propagating what would eventually become the Brunello Biondi-Santi, or BBS 11, clone. Ferruccio also made the bold decision to bottle a 100 percent Sangiovese wine, focusing, like Clemente did before him, on ageworthiness rather than quick profits. With this, the birth of modern-day Brunello di Montalcino began.

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 to secure the future, laying away older vintages in the cellar. He even made the crucial call to secretly wall-up part of his cellar prior to World War II, concealing the oldest Riservas from the Front. In doing so, Biondi-Santi was eventually able to show the world how long-lived and complex Brunello could be. In 1966, Brunello di Montalcino became a DOC and the Italian government turned to Tancredi to assist in writing the regulations.

Tancredi brought the winery to new heights, but it was his son Franco who helped show the world what they could do. Franco traveled far and wide, promoting the wines and showing the power of the old Riservas. The reputation of the wines was only boosted in 1980 when Brunello di Montalcino became the first DOCG in Italy.

Vineyards:

Located just two miles from the town of Montalcino, Il Greppo sits on a 47-hectare parcel of land. The oldest vines on the property are over 80 years old, dating back to 1930. In 1988, Franco Biondi-Santi started an enormous undertaking in the vineyard, eventually increasing plantings from 4 to 25 hectares. He planted the vines on steep terraces, using the natural contour of the hills to create an amphitheater, setting Il Greppo’s cellar at center stage. The soils, rich in a stony marl known locally as galestro, are ideal for the cultivation of Sangiovese Grosso. Dry, warmer weather typically leads to a September harvest. Noted diurnal shifts ensure the characteristic aromas and acid levels that lead to the expressive, long-aging Brunellos typical of the estate.