The vineyards of Tenuta Greppo date back to the 1800s. Created by Clemente Biondi in 1865, Biondi-Santi was first labelled as Brunello di Montalcino as of the 1888 vintage. For seven generations, the Biondi-Santi family ensured the unique stature of their wines. Clemente Biondi later passed the baton to his nephew Ferruccio Biondi Santi, who continued to run the Greppo estate with aplomb, and managed to keep production running after the First World War. In 1932 he was widely heralded as ‘’the inventor of Brunello’’. The estate continued to be passed down through the family, and until his death a few years ago, Franco Biondi-Santi was one of Montalcino’s most respected men.
In 2020, Biondi-Santi sold the winery to luxury brand EPI, founded in 1974 by French industrialist Jean-Louis Descours. Nothing has changed, however, which is something very important Biondi-Santi wanted the world to know and which has been constantly reinforced by Federico Radi, Viticulture and Winemaking Director.
Three wines are produced by Biondi-Santi. Produced for the first time in 1888, the Biondi-Santi Riserva was the first Brunello di Montalcino in history. It has only been made 40 times since 1888. The flagship Brunello di Montalcino is produced exclusively with estate grown grapes, hand selected from high-altitude vineyards and then fermented in cement vats with the use of indigenous yeasts only. The wine is aged in traditional large Slavonian oak casks. Traditionally, the Rosso di Montalcino is produced from the estate’s youngest vines. It is fermented in cement vats and matures in oak for 12 months. This wine was originally known as the Biondi-Santi Brunello “white label”, but became the estate’s Rosso in 1983, when the Rosso di Montalcino DOC was established.
