Biondi Santi

Founded in the mid-19th century at the Tenuta Greppo estate in Montalcino, Tuscany, Biondi-Santi is world-renowned as the birthplace of Brunello di Montalcino. The story began when chemist Clemente Santi began isolating and cultivating the local Sangiovese Grosso grape clone, but it was his grandson, Ferruccio Biondi-Santi, who revolutionized Italian winemaking by bottling the first official vintage of 100% Sangiovese Brunello di Montalcino in 1888. Rejecting the standard practice of blending multiple grape varieties, Ferruccio proved that single-varietal Sangiovese aged in oak could produce exceptionally complex, long-lived wines. Managed across generations—most notably by Tancredi, who pioneered the re-corking of historic library vintages, and his son Franco—the estate defined the style and international pedigree of Tuscan fine wine for over a century before being acquired by the French luxury group EPI in 2016.