Producers · Montalcino, Tuscany · MMXXVI
Biondi-Santi
At Il Greppo, one family selected a vine, bottled a wine built for decades, and gave a hillside its category. The Riserva 2016 rests here, in bond.
The producer
The estate that invented its region.
Before Brunello was a category, it was one family's idea.
Every wine region has a founding producer; few have a founding bottle. At Il Greppo, on the slopes of Montalcino, Ferruccio Biondi Santi selected a distinct strain of Sangiovese and bottled what is regarded as the first Brunello di Montalcino in 1888 — a wine conceived from the start for decades of age, in a country then drinking almost everything young.
The idea began a generation earlier with Ferruccio's grandfather, Clemente Santi, whose all-Sangiovese red — a bottling he called "Brunello" — was recognised at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. Ferruccio turned that experiment into a wine and a method. His son Tancredi, effectively Italy's first consulting oenologist, helped write the Brunello production rules, invented the estate's cellar ricolmatura — topping up old bottles with their own vintage — and had the 1955 Riserva served to Queen Elizabeth II in 1969. Two bottles of the very first 1888 are still kept at Il Greppo.
The house held that line for more than a century: massal selections from its own old vines, long ageing in large Slavonian oak, and a Riserva made only when the year deserved one, from the oldest plantings on the estate. Riservas from the nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries remain reference points for how long Sangiovese can live — the 1955 is still cited among the great bottles of its century, and remains the only Italian wine on some lists of the century's greatest.
For a collector, Biondi-Santi is Montalcino's original document. Every Brunello made by anyone, anywhere on the hill, argues with this estate whether it means to or not.
The Riserva
- The estate
- Tenuta Il Greppo, on the slopes of Montalcino in Tuscany, at around 500 metres on galestro and marl soils. The vineyard is planted to Sangiovese, some of it very old.
- 1888
- Ferruccio Biondi Santi bottled what is regarded as the first true Brunello di Montalcino — a 100% Sangiovese built, from the start, for decades of age, at a time when almost everything in Italy was drunk young. His grandfather Clemente Santi had shown the way a generation earlier.
- The clone
- The estate developed its own massal selections of Sangiovese Grosso — the celebrated BBS11 — grafted and propagated from its most resistant old vines. It remains the basis of the plantings.
- The Riserva
- Made only in the best years, from the oldest vines, and aged in large Slavonian oak casks before a long spell in bottle. It is one of the longest-lived red wines in the world.
- The clone, named
- In the 1970s Franco Biondi Santi, working with the University of Florence, selected the estate's finest Sangiovese biotype; officially registered in 1978 as BBS11 (Brunello Biondi-Santi, vine row 11), it was the first clone in Italy to carry its family's name.
- The line, and today
- Seven generations of the Biondi Santi family gave a hillside its category, favouring finesse, freshness and longevity over weight. Since December 2016 the estate has been majority-owned by the Descours family's EPI group; Franco Biondi Santi died in 2013, and the last family members left by 2020. The house style continues under CEO Giampiero Bertolini and winemaker Federico Radi, faithful to the method Ferruccio set down.
Drawn from the accounts of Wine Spectator, Robert Camuto, TerroirSense, the Consorzio del Brunello and the estate's own records. The estate: biondisanti.it. Record updated .
A verdict, not a tier.
Old vines, exceptional years, and nothing in between.
The Riserva of Il Greppo follows a rule this cellar keeps meeting among the producers it holds: the top wine is not the expensive version of the estate — it is the estate's judgement of the year, rendered in bottle. Made only in exceptional vintages and only from the oldest vines, it appears when it appears, and its absences are information.
The 2016, from one of Montalcino's most celebrated recent vintages, is the expression of that rule now resting in this cellar's bond — a wine released with age already served at the estate, and built for far more. What remains in question, as ever, is the keeping. That is the part answered here.
Legendary vintages
Forty Riservas in a century and a half.
The Riserva is declared only when the year earns it. In the estate's first fifty-seven years, it happened four times.
Brunello di Montalcino Riserva
The first Brunello ever made — Ferruccio Biondi Santi's all-Sangiovese red, and the wine from which an entire appellation descends. Two bottles are still kept at Il Greppo. Last tasted in 1994, and still alive.
Riserva
The second Riserva ever declared, and long spoken of as the estate's most mythical bottle. The house still holds some.
Riserva
Named by Wine Spectator as the only Italian wine among the greatest bottles of the twentieth century — and served to Queen Elizabeth II at a London dinner in 1969, the moment Brunello entered the English-speaking world.
Riserva
With the 1971, the most revered of the post-war Riservas — proof of Tancredi's argument that Sangiovese, grown and kept correctly, could outlive its makers.
Riserva
The finest Riserva of Franco Biondi Santi's late years, and the one most often cited as the bridge between the historic estate and the modern one.
Brunello di Montalcino Riserva
Harvested and vinified by the Biondi Santi family in the autumn of 2016; that December the estate's majority passed to EPI, and the long élevage and final blend were completed under Federico Radi. Ninety-nine points from Monica Larner in the Wine Advocate, ninety-eight from Wine Spectator, in what Decanter called a five-star vintage of modern classics. The end of seven generations, in a bottle built to outlive us.
Riserva 2016, 0.75L →Only around forty Riservas have been declared since 1888 — just four in the estate's first fifty-seven years (1888, 1891, 1925 and 1945). The 2014 vintage was cancelled outright. Years marked in gold are recorded in this cellar.
In the archive
The bottles, recorded.
Held in professional bond · custody documented · no public prices.
What is shown is the smaller part. Interest in a wine or vintage not recorded here can be left by private request.
Questions
Who created Brunello di Montalcino?
Biondi-Santi. At the Il Greppo estate in Montalcino, Ferruccio Biondi Santi isolated a superior selection of Sangiovese and bottled the wine regarded as the first Brunello in 1888. Every producer in Montalcino works inside a category this single estate invented.
What makes a Biondi-Santi Riserva special?
It is made only in exceptional vintages, from the estate's oldest vines, and built for extreme age — the wine that established Brunello's reputation for longevity, with celebrated Riservas reaching back into the nineteenth century still spoken of today. Like the red label at Giacosa, the Riserva is a verdict on the year, not a tier in a range.
What is the BBS11 clone?
BBS11 stands for Brunello Biondi-Santi, vine row 11 — the specific strain of Sangiovese Grosso that Franco Biondi Santi selected with the University of Florence and registered officially in 1978. It was the first grapevine clone in Italy to carry its family's name, and it has been propagated across Montalcino and beyond; much of the region's Sangiovese traces back to this estate's selection work.
Which Biondi-Santi bottles does The Empty Drops hold?
The recorded part of the cellar includes the Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2016, held in professional bonded storage with documented custody. Most of the cellar is never listed.
Can I buy Biondi-Santi from The Empty Drops?
Released bottles are handled through CruTrade, where condition, custody and terms stay transparent. Bottles recorded but not offered are held privately, though interest in a specific wine or vintage can be registered by private enquiry.