Description
History
Brunello di Montalcino was pioneered by the Biondi Santi family in the 19th century, when Ferruccio Biondi Santi selected Sangiovese Grosso grapes to craft a serious aging wine. To this day, Tenuta Il Greppo preserves this legacy with absolute discipline: estate-grown grapes only, traditional winemaking, and strict quality standards. The 2019 vintage was bottled in March 2024, striking a refined balance between ripeness and freshness.
Grape variety
Sangiovese (BBS11 clone) 100 %
Vinification
Fermentation with native yeasts, aging in large Slavonian oak casks for at least 30 months, bottling without heavy filtration, further bottle aging.
Alcohol content
13.5 % vol
Tasting notes
Deep ruby with garnet hues. Aromas of black cherry, plum, violet petals, earth, subtle spice and balsamic tones. On the palate it is complex and enveloping, with mature, integrated tannins, lively acidity, and a long persistent finish with fruit and spice echoes.
Food pairing
Excellent with roast beef, wild boar, braised meats, game, oven-roasted dishes, and aged cheeses. Serve at 18 °C, with at least an hour of decanting.
Brand
Biondi Santi
The story of Biondi Santi and the Greppo estate is also the story of Brunello itself. It all begins with Clemente Santi, who owned many lands between Montalcino and Pienza, and dedicates a large part of his activity to agriculture, managing to obtain for the first time in 1865 a Tuscan red wine from Brunello grapes of great complexity and with great aging potential, also winning the prize at the Paris Expo that year. From then on, the modern history of Brunello di Montalcino began as a great Italian red wine with high aging potential. Clemente Santi's daughter Caterina married Jacopo Biondi, a Florentine doctor. They had a son, Ferruccio Biondi, who inherited the passion for vineyards and wines and combined the surnames to pay homage to the origins of the family and in particular of the mother. Ferruccio went through various difficulties related to the period including phylloxera, but while the other winegrowers were looking for the ready drink for their red wines he wanted to differentiate himself by moving towards the creation of even more long-lived wines of only Sangiovese grapes, starting a clonal selection of his own grapes and laying the foundations for the future Tuscan trend of producing pure Sangiovese wines. After him, his son Tancredi dedicated himself further to improving the wine and began to export the product to various foreign markets, strengthening the name and awareness of Brunello di Montalcino in the world. After him it is the turn of Franco Biondi Santi, who in turn learned the winemaking techniques from his father and continued to produce Reserves of incomparable pride; he also has the merit of having increased the production of Brunello from the historic 4 hectares to the current 25 hectares. Currently in the company we also see the inclusion of the two children Jacopo and Alessandra, one for the oenological aspect and the other for the commercial one.
