Biondi-Santi ‘Tenuta Greppo’ Brunello di Montalcino Annata 1971 750ml
$22.5
$27
About Biondi-SantiWithout the Biondi-Santi family’s Il Greppo estate, Brunello wouldn’t exist. Clemente Santi made the first wine called Brunello in 1869, and his son Ferruccio further isolated the BBS1 clone of the Sangiovese grape, which the family had named “Brunello,” or the little brown one. Ferruccio, who founded the Il Greppo estate in 1880, dedicated his life’s work to crafting a long-aging monovarietal wine with this grape. Tancredi Biondi-Santi, Ferruccio’s son, brought Brunello to the world and instilled practices like “topping off” aging bottles of Brunello Riserva. Franco Biondi-Santi, who passed away in 2013, maintained the estate’s traditions and created a legacy in the process. Today’s Il Greppo is helmed by Jacopo and Alessandra Biondi-Santi, Franco’s children, though French corporation EPI holds a majority stake in the estate. Under this new control, Biondi-Santi’s vineyards are being replanted and upgrades are being made to the cantina; however, the 67-acre Il Greppo estate continues its practice of crafting fine, age-worthy Brunello and captivating Rosso di Montalcino wines. Indeed, the estate extended the aging time of its Brunello from five to six years, and it’s started special paired releases of a recent Brunello Riserva with a mature bottling, both commitments to the belief that while time may pass, but a Biondi-Santi Brunello is eternal.
