Biondi-Santi
Tenuta Greppo Riserva
Brunello di Montalcino
2013

The producer

Before the modern history of italian wine there was Biondi-Santi, founded in 1865, and arguably the “pioneer” of modern Brunello di Montalcino. While many other estates are producing great wines now, few other estates have the pedigree, history and reputation of consistently producing the finest wines for well over a century. Biondi Santi owns 26 ha vineyards split over three sites, of which Il Greppo is the original vineyard and where the winery is located, and the other two sites are found in the eastern and southern parts of Moontalcino.

5^th generation Franco famously said that his role “is to protect the traditions that created Brunello while defending its typicity from any winemaking practices that could change its quintessential character”. And this very much encapsulates the traditional style of wines produced here, with ageing in large Slavonian oak casks in order to fully let the greatness of the fruit and terroir express themselves. Riserva is only produced in exceptional years, and always from the oldest vines on the Greppo estate, planted in 1936. Roughly 39 vintages of Riserva have been made since 1988.

The wine

First produced in 1888 and released only 40 times from then and until today and always in extremely limited numbers, Biondi Santi’s Riserva is a true rarity. Fruit is derived only from the estate’s oldest vineyards, and fermentation takes place in Slavonian oak barrels and is followed by ageing also in Slavonian oak for 3 years. A majestic and complex wine, with structure and freshness, and intense red cherry fruit concentration and length.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.