The Biondi-Santi 2015 Brunello di Montalcino exudes dark, velvety fruit and concentration while maintaining the signature elegance, suppleness and lithe personalty that distinguishes the iconic Il Greppo estate. I found this new release to be quite distinctive and exquisitely beautiful, setting it apart from many of the past vintages we are most familiar with. This 2015 edition is dark, exuberant and bold, but precise, focused and sharp as well. It will live for years in your cellar, but tasted now in its infancy, the wine shows blackberry, dried cherry, plum and dark cassis...

Here's a wine that proudly opens a new chapter for Montalcino's celebrated Rosso. The Biondi-Santi 2017 Rosso di Montalcino opens to immediately recognized Sangiovese character, presented in a soft, delicate and nuanced manner. The wine pours from its distinctive yellow-labeled bottle to a beautifully mild garnet color with dark sepia accents. As it takes on oxygen in the glass, the wine reveals a slow progression of wild berry, rose, tar, spice and tilled earth. There are faint traces of caramel, candied orange and wild mountain herb....

The 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Annata is an understated beauty that takes some time to blossom in the glass. It’s a sweetly spiced and floral expression of the vintage, blending ripe cherries and strawberries with dusty earth, hints of sage and violets. A refreshing air of mint and lavender develops over time. It’s elegance personified on the palate, seamless and silky-smooth, with a classic and pure expression of red fruits and saline-minerals, as fine tannins slowly mount toward the close. Hints of licorice, white pepper and savory herbs linger through the lightly structured finale...

This is so transparent and beautiful with clarity. Cherry, plum, strawberry, and berry character with some stone and orange. It’s full-bodied and very linear and round with balance and refinement. The tannins are fine and very powdery in texture. Excellent depth. Ripe, yet so energetic. Fresh, vivid and round. Drink or hold.

The 2016 Rosso di Montalcino hails from lower-elevation vineyards, around 250 meters, in the northern section of Montalcino. It’s a classic, layered and dramatic wine, showing bright cherry, sweet herbs, cooling mint, dried fall leaves, tobacco and savory spice, with a presence and depth that feels more like Brunello than Rosso in character. There’s sweetness and purity to the fruit here that keeps me coming back to the glass, yet I’m sure that the 2016 will benefit from a few years of cellaring, especially as its fine tannins build toward the close. The Rosso spends twelve months maturing

There’s a purity and savory refinement to the 2017 Rosso di Montalcino Tenuta Greppo that transcends the expectations of this warm and dry vintage. A perfumed display of wild strawberries, fresh roses, violets and a dusting of minerals lift up from the glass. Its textures are silky, carried across a feminine frame, with bright cherries and inner herbal tones that find vibrancy through a core of brilliant acidity. Nuanced tannins and dried berries linger, leaving a lightly structured yet very pretty impression....

A finely structured Rosso with firmness and density, showing plums and a hint of citrus. Medium body. Fresh finish. Drink now.

This is a fascinating red that evolves wonderfully with air from leather, mushroom and dusty aromas to dried flowers and plums. Medium body. Firm and lightly chewy tannins with intense acidity. Traditional, as always. Decanting recommended. Drink or hold.

A glorious nose to the wine with blackberries, plums, balsamic, mushrooms and bark. Floral. Some tile and terracotta undertones. Full-bodied with fine tannins and vivid, linear acidity running through the middle palate. Light toffee and smoke. Extremely long and lively. Traditional, yet very clean and beautiful. Drinkable now, but better after 2025.

Solidly built, featuring a dense matrix of tannins that underlines the cherry, plum, earth, leather and tobacco notes. Vibrant, with lively acidity streamlining the fruit, tobacco and wild herb accents on the finish. Best from 2023 through 2040.

I am immediately smitten by the Biondi-Santi 2016 Rosso di Montalcino thanks to the purity of the aromas on display. The bouquet literally submerges the senses in Sangiovese, with those delicate aromas of wild rose, violets, wet earth and brambly forest berry. Background notes of licorice, camphor ash and balsam herb come into steady focus. I am delighted by the intensity and the immense focus of this wine. This Rosso di Montalcino stands with the best of Brunello...

You will notice the dedication printed below the label of the wine label. It reads: "Dedicato a Franco Biondi Santi." Indeed, the Biondi-Santi 2012 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is the last vintage made by the towering father figure of Brunello whom most everyone referred to as the "gentleman of Montalcino." Il Dottore, as he was also respectfully addressed, died at age 91 in April 2013, and he was very active in the winery as this magnificent wine took shape. This Riserva is a true work of beauty...

This 'primus inter pares' has seen some upheaval while changing into French hands a couple of years ago and might herald stylistic change not welcomed by admirers of this true custodian of traditional Brunello. This Rosso di Montalcino from an outstanding vintage, with great acidity and surprisingly soft tannins clinging to the concentrated fruit, seems less austere than in the past, but is still in a class of its own.

Pretty cherry, strawberry, juniper, wild rosemary, iron and sanguine aromas and flavors are welded to a firm structure. This is ripe and complex, with a fine aftertaste. Best from 2021 through 2036."

Made under the traditional Biondi Santi dispensation: from a fine vintage only and from vines of more than 25 years old, with an emphasis on the celebrated BS11 clone, with three years’ ageing in large wooden vessels and a further four in bottle before release. Many of Biondi Santi’s vineyards are high-sited, and harvesting is on the early side, giving wines which are emphatically more acidic than they are tannic. This Riserva is pale and translucent (though a little deeper in hue than the 2012 Annata wine), with finely composed aromas of vellum and sued...

Underbrush, wild berry, rose and camphor aromas waft out of the glass along with whiffs of rosemary and graphite on this medium-bodied red. It's linear, savory and balanced, delivering red-cherry, pomegranate, star anise and white-pepper flavors set against vibrant acidity and polished tannins. It shows breeding and finesse. It's ready now or you could hold for even more complexity. Drink through 2026.

This is a rich, flavorful Rosso with firm tannins and bright acidity. Medium body. Firm and beautiful. Hints of chocolate and spice. Drink or hold.

Plenty of iron, sanguine and wild herb aromas lead off, while flavors of plum and cherry prevail in this rich red. Firmly structured and balanced, with the lingering finish echoing the fruit, Tuscan scrub and mineral elements. Drink now through 2028.

The Riserva 2012 is a quintessential Biondi-Santi Riserva, reflecting not just the house style that made the firm famous, but it clearly shows Franco’s own hallmark of extreme elegance. The 2012 is a classic in the making, boasting enticing scents of rose, underbrush, wild red berry, new leather and underlying notes of crushed mint. It has a chiseled palate, featuring Morello cherry, pomegranate, orange zest, star anise and a hint of tobacco framed in taut, polished tannins. Firm acidity lends youthful tension and keeps it impeccably balanced.

Luminous garnet red. Perfumed nose of orange peel, cinnamon, sour red cherries, strawberries, talcum powder, and old fine leather, plus sneaky hints of slightly air-dried berries (not surprising, given how hot 2012 was, even taking into consideration that Biondi-Santi is one of the first estates to pick each year). Then juicy and dense with a silky mouthfeel to the flavors of red berries, blood orange and spices. Finishes long and silky now, but this specific Brunello Riserva was especially austere in its youth and so the estate decided to release it one year later than usual for sale...