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Today, Brunello di Montalcino is one of the “icons” of Italian winemaking and the main wine of the top three classic tuscan red wines (along with Chianti Classico and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano). It is Brunello, more than other wines, that can be called the perfect symbol of Tuscan traditional winemaking – thanks to its outstanding qualities, the best Brunello occupy leading positions in world wine ratings, Brunello is uncompromisingly made from 100% of the main local Sangiovese variety cultivated in Tuscany since Etruscan times , Brunello is designed to age for decades and is considered one of the longest-lived European wines.
World fame overtook Brunello relatively recently, but the historical tradition of producing this wine dates back almost a century and a half, although it is inferior in duration, for example, Chianti Classico or even Carmignano, the production zones of which were first approved back in 1716.
Biondi Santi – founding fathers. It is believed that the wine called Brunello was created in the second half of the 19th century by the efforts of the local aristocratic landowner Clemente Santi and his grandson Feruccio Biondi Santi. In 1867, the prototype of the future Brunello created by Clemente Santi under the name “selected wine from Montalcino” received an award at the International Exhibition in Paris. However, 1888 is considered the official year of birth of Brunello wine.
Then the Tenuta il Greppo winery was founded, and Clemente Santi’s grandson Ferruccio Biondi Santi sectioned the local clone of Sangiovese and established rules for the production of wine that seemed unusually harsh – Brunello should have been made from 100% local variety of the common Tuscan variety Sangiovese, called Sangiovese Grosso because of its because of its larger size. and thicker skin of berries. For its time, the “Brunello recipe” seemed revolutionary – in that era, single-varietal wines in Tuscany were nonsense, this idea gained real and numerous followers only in the 1960s-1980s.
Ferruccio died in 1917, leaving to his son Tancredi the winery he created, as well as the vineyards completely renovated after the phylloxera invasion, now invulnerable to this parasitic insect that became the scourge of European winemaking at the turn of the 20th century. Ferruccio Biondi Santi )(Tancredi’s son) brought Brunello’s classic style to a prefection, culminating in the 1955 Biondi Santi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva, which made it to the top ratings of the 20th century, including Wine Spectator’s 12 Wines of the Century (along with Chȃteau Margaux 1900, Domaine Margaux, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 1937, Petrus 1961, etc.). Tancredi also mastered the technology of refilling bottles of old vintages, thus preserving the “riserva” wines of Biondi Santi until 1888.
The last true “patriarch” of Brunello was Franco Biondi Santi, who ran the household until his death in 2013. He singled out the “ideal clone” BBS/11 (Biondi Santi Brunello 11), expanded the Tenuta il Grepo vineyard area, but Franco directed his main efforts to maintaining the quality of old vintages from the stocks of the Biondi Santi family, which eventually turned into one of the main symbols of longevity. in Italian winemaking. In December 2016, there was a high-profile event in the world of wine – the oldest Brunello producer Tenuta il Greppo winery was sold by its owners Jacopo and Alessandra Biondi Santi (children of Franco Biondi-Santi) to the French concern Epi Group (owned by the Descours family) the owners of the famous champagne house Piper Heidsieck. Thus, an end was put in the history of the main legend of Brunello – the Biondi Santi family will continue to produce wine in their household, but it will belong to other people.
1967 – establishment of the Consortium. By the middle of the twentieth century, Biondi Santi continued to produce Brunello in small volumes, and its neighbors followed suit, establishing in 1967 the Brunello di Montalcino Wine Consortium (Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino), which initially included only 25 producers. Shortly before that, in 1960, in the commune of Montalcino, the Brunello di Montlacino DOC wine zone was established, which became the country’s first appellation with a Designation controlled by place of origin (DOC – Denominazione di Origine Controllata). Brunello, however, even at that time remained a regional wine, outside the region known only to connoisseurs. The “Miracle of Brunello” happened a decade and a half later, when in 1980 it became the first wine in Italy to receive an appellacion of the new highest status DOCG (Denomination Controlled and Guaranteed of Origin).
Brunello owes much of its transformation into the world’s great wine to the owners of Castello Banfi, the American-Italian Mariani-May family, major importers of Italian wines in the United States. In 1978, Mariani acquired the Poggio alle Mura castle and a huge plot of land (about three thousand hectares) in the district of Montalcino, turning them into a giant wine “latifundia” by Tuscan standards, which became Brunello’s new citadel. An important merit of Mariani was the “conquest” of America, where Brunello quickly gained fame as the most prestigious Tuscan wine and began to be sold in millions of bottles.
The successful Castello Banfi project has completely transformed the wine-producing region, which has been hit by a real investment rain. The number of producers of Brunello di Montalcino eventually increased by an order of magnitude – today there are already 240 of them, and the total production of Brunello exceeds 10 million bottles. The total land area of the Consortium is 24,000 hectares, of which Brunello di Montalcino vineyards occupy 2,100 hectares, covering the giant hill of Montalcino, 40 km south of Siena. The register of producers of Brunello, as well as Rosso di Montalcino, has been closed for the admission of new members for 20 years. The tiny medieval town of Montalcino is now visited annually by about one and a half million tourists, of which more than two hundred thousand stay here for the night.
Purity of style and experiment. The rapid development of the wine region inevitably led to discrepancies in views on Brunello’s style. According to the DOCG Brunello regulations, its production area is set within the borders of the commune of Montalcino, but even in this case, its characteristics are very different in terms of exposure, soils and altitude – after all, the hill on which the medieval town of Montalcino stands is huge. The style of wines from different vineyards is also different, which is why there have been voices for dividing the territory of Brunello di Montalcino into a series of sub-zones, highlighting about twenty micro-terroirs to help consumers better navigate the subtle differences between wines. Supporters of this idea argue that the micro-terroirs of Montalcino are as fascinating as the Grand Cru of Burgundy, however, this project was officially rejected by the consortium, also because Montalcino has a strong tradition of producing Brunello from vineyards with different characteristics, sometimes located very remotely from each other, with the aim of enriching the sensory richness of the wine.
Legends of Brunello di Montalcino.
“Big wood” and “small wood”. Even more controversial is the type of “wood” used for the very long exposure of Brunello (total exposure – at least 5 years from the date of harvest, of which at least 2 years – in oak barrels). Traditionally, since the end of the 19th century, aging has been carried out in large “botti” barrels, with a capacity of several thousand liters, made mainly from the Balkan “Slavonian” oak. Huge “botti” are made of very thick boards, varnished on the outside, and the wine develops very slowly in them, and the influence of the oak itself on the characteristics of the wine is also limited. With the advent of the “Americans” Mariani-May and the founding of Banfi in Montalcino, the fashion for a new “wood” format came, namely, French “barriques”, with a capacity of only 225 liters, with thin unvarnished boards. Barriques have a much more noticeable influence on the character of the wine, and its very development during aging in them becomes much more “hurried”. The “new style” found many adherents in Montalcino, but even more wineries rejected it, primarily for the oldest producers of this wine, led by Biondi Santi. The arguments of the “traditionalists” in the dispute with the supporters of the “new style”, accusing the latter of “hack work” and “chasing a long euro” seem convincing. However, it must be admitted that the level of Brunello “new style” in a number of farms is no less perfect than that of the best “classic” Brunello. And this is wonderful, because in addition to the harsh, almost introverted classics of Biondi Santi, or the completely “symphonic” Poggio di Sotto, we have the Mozartian cheerful “new style” Brunello Casanova Tenuta Nuova, which has won several absolute 100-point ratings in the world’s leading wineries in recent years ratings. And the somewhat uncomplicated Brunellos of the giant Banfi farm should not be underestimated either, perhaps their level is not comparable with Biondi Santi, but any inhabitant of our planet can buy them.
The production regulations of Brunello di Montalcino DOCG are equally tolerant of both the “old” and the “new” style – it does not limit the age and size of the wooden containers used to age the wine. In accordance with the provisions of the regulations for this wine is allowed to use a single Sangiovese variety (its different clones, and not just the local Sangiovese Grosso, as it was originally). Before being released for sale, Brunello di Montalcino undergoes a long exposure – at least 5 years from the date of harvest (for Brunello Riserva – 6 years), of which at least 2 years in oak barrels and at least 4 months in bottle (6 months – Brunello Riserva).