Brunello di Montalcino DOCG

Medieval communal statutes already set the start date of the harvest, and during the siege of 1553 wine never ran short. Clemente Santi was the forerunner of Brunello production: in 1869 his Vino Scelto (Brunello) from the 1865 vintage won a silver medal from the Agrarian Committee of Montepulciano. Biondi-Santi's website credits Clemente Santi and Ferruccio Biondi Santi with starting barrel-aged single-varietal wines in Montalcino in the nineteenth century and calls 1888 the first vintage of Brunello in history. Very few producers kept production alive between the two world wars, though several estates showed Brunello at the Mostra dei Vini Tipici Senesi in Siena in 1932, 1933 and 1935, and after the Second World War producers agreed on production rules. DOC followed by DPR of 28 March 1966 and DOCG by DPR of 1 July 1980.

• Clemente Santi, the founding father of Brunello di Montalcino, won a silver medal in 1869 with his 1865 Vino Scelto (Brunello)
• Other early recognition: an 1893 Ministry of Agriculture award to a wine of Raffaello Padelletti, and prizes in the early 1900s for Riccardo Paccagnini's Brunello, including the Esposizione Franco Italiana in Rome in 1910
• The consorzio was founded in 1967, just after the DOC, as a free association of vignerons, and counts Brunello as the first wine to become DOCG, in 1980
• Efforts to market Brunello took off in the 1970s, but the global market was conquered only after 1980, as the number of wineries and bottles grew

The zone lies in south-eastern Tuscany, 40 km south of Siena, covering 243.62 square kilometres in a nearly square shape bounded by the valleys of the Orcia, Asso and Ombrone, with sides averaging 15 km. Elevation runs from about 120 m along the rivers to about 650 m near Poggio Civitella, the highest point. Montalcino has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2004. The hill of Montalcino is 40 km from the sea and about 100 km from the Apennines. The climate is Mediterranean but tendentially dry, with continental traits: average annual rainfall is about 700 mm, concentrated in spring and autumn, and snow is possible above 400 m in winter. Mount Amiata, 1740 m high to the south, protects the territory from storms and hail. During ripening, position and altitude bring significant day-night temperature swings.

• Soils formed in different geological eras, from sandstones, sometimes mixed with limestone, to alberese and galestro, with textures ranging from sandy to clayey
• The lowest areas have relatively loose soils; higher up the hill, soils are dense with stony particles from decomposed marl and limestone, and the range of slopes, exposures and heights creates distinctive microclimates even in close proximity
• Vineyard area: 4,400 ha under vine, of which 2,100 ha are Brunello di Montalcino DOCG and 860 ha Rosso di Montalcino DOC
• Soils tending to be poor in organic matter, calcareous and short of water keep Sangiovese's vigour fairly contained, and growers work the soil to conserve water through the summer

Brunello di Montalcino must come from vineyards composed exclusively of Sangiovese. The local grape, known as Brunello or Brunellino, was identified as a variety of Sangiovese; Biondi-Santi's website refers to it as Sangiovese grosso. In 2016 half of Biondi Santi's vineyard was planted with BBS 11, a clone specially developed by Florence University from old vines at the estate. The wine must age for at least 24 months in oak containers of any size, and up to 6% of the vintage may be aged in containers of any type. At release it is intense ruby red tending to garnet, with a characteristic and intense smell and a dry, warm, somewhat tannic, robust, harmonious and persistent taste, and it withstands long ageing, improving over time.

• Variety: 100% Sangiovese, called Brunello in Montalcino; Rosso di Montalcino is also made exclusively from it
• Oak: at least 24 months in oak containers of any size, with the start and end dates recorded in the cellar registers; the wine may be moved to other vessels during ageing
• Style debate: Stephen Brook (Decanter, 2016) writes that many critics denounced Biondi Santi's light, ethereal wines for their lightness at a time when rich, full-flavoured and powerful Brunellos, a style that found favour with many critics, were on the rise, while the estate remained true to its historic style
• Maximum permitted yield is 8 tonnes (80 quintals) of grapes per hectare, equal to 54.4 hl of wine; the grapes must reach at least 12.00% vol natural alcohol (12.50% with a vigna mention), and the wine at least 12.50% vol total alcohol at release

Biondi-Santi's Brunello is produced exclusively from estate-grown grapes, fermented in cement vats with indigenous yeasts only and aged in traditional large Slavonian oak casks. Its Riserva, first produced in 1888, has been released only 40 times since then, from vineyards more than 25 years old, and each new vintage is announced at Tenuta Greppo, the Biondi-Santi main estate; the earliest Riserva vintages are 1888, 1891, 1925 and 1945. In 2016 the estate's vineyards registered for Brunello covered 23 ha, rising from about 360 m to 500 m. In its entry on Banfi, Decanter's 2017 travel guide credits the New York exporters the Mariani family with making Brunello internationally renowned. Member bottlers of the consorzio include Altesino, Banfi, Biondi-Santi Tenuta Greppo, Casanova di Neri, Il Marroneto, Il Poggione, Lisini and Salvioni. Vinification, storage, wood ageing, bottling and bottle refinement must all take place inside the production zone, and Brunello may be reclassified as Rosso di Montalcino DOC while keeping the Brunello yield limit.

• Biondi-Santi Tenuta Greppo: the estate keeps every Riserva vintage in its wine library, La Storica, and removes bottles only at the moment of sale
• Release: Brunello not before 1 January of the year following five years counted from the harvest year (so a 2000 vintage goes on sale after 1 January 2005); Riserva after six years, with Riserva lots separated in the registers by 31 December of the fifth year
• Planting: new plantings and replantings from 1 January 2016 need at least 4,000 vines per hectare at registration; forcing is banned and emergency irrigation is allowed
• Labelling and packaging: the vintage must always appear; terms such as Extra, Fine, Scelto, Selezione, Superiore and Vecchio are banned; only dark Bordeaux-type glass bottles closed with a single-piece cork are allowed

Montalcino is a hilltop town 40 km south of Siena whose villages have an overall population just over five thousand. Its name may come from Mons Lucinus or from Mons Ilcinus, the mount of holm oaks, which the three holm oaks on the town's coat of arms would suggest. When Cosimo de' Medici took over the city in 1559, the town was the last independent municipality in Italy. Helen Farrell's 2017 Decanter travel guide starts a wine tour at Biondi Santi's Tenuta Greppo, where an 1869 certificate in the tasting room is "the first documented mention of 'Brunello'". Winery routes nearby pass the Romanesque abbey of Sant'Antimo, with Monte Amiata standing in the distance. Benvenuto Brunello, the consorzio's showcase, presents the latest vintage of Brunello di Montalcino alongside the territory's other appellation wines; its 2025 programme ran from 20 to 24 November at the Chiostro di Sant'Agostino, with media days, walk-around tastings open to trade professionals and wine lovers, masterclasses and the Leccio d'Oro prize.

• Tenuta Greppo: as of 2017, free tours by appointment ran from the vinification room with its cement tanks to the 19th-century Slavonian oak barrels in the ageing cellars
• Benvenuto Brunello 2025 included the dedication of a celebratory ceramic tile and installation at the Town Hall wall
• As of 2017, Banfi organised a mid-July Jazz & Wine showcase in the monumental medieval fortress
• The consorzio credits Montalcino with leading the way in wine tourism, with the first open cellars and guided tours

Primary sources (MASAF disciplinare, the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino, and Biondi-Santi): https://www.masaf.gov.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeAttachment.php/L/IT/D/1%252Fa%252Fe%252FD.8495fb8195fb9f88e44b/P/BLOB%3AID%3D4625/E/7z?mode=download, https://www.consorziobrunellodimontalcino.it/en/567/territory, https://www.consorziobrunellodimontalcino.it/en/583/wines, https://www.consorziobrunellodimontalcino.it/en/591/consortium, https://www.consorziobrunellodimontalcino.it/en/592/wineries, https://www.consorziobrunellodimontalcino.it/en/2039/benvenuto-brunello, https://www.biondisanti.it/en/prodotti/vini/7/vini/77/brunello-di-montalcino, https://www.biondisanti.it/en/prodotti/vini/7/vini/79/brunello-di-montalcino. Secondary sources: https://www.decanter.com/learn/wine-legend-biondi-santi-tenuta-il-greppo-1975-349404/, https://www.decanter.com/wine-travel/italy/montalcino-wine-tour-372689/. Last verified 2026-10-05