Biondi-Santi Riserva: a half-century vertical, 1968-2018
Every invitation to a tasting of Biondi-Santi, above all at the property in Montalcino, is a special one. And it is yet more special still if one has the chance to taste the legendary Riserva, arguably Italy’s most iconic wine, as db's Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay found out at a recent half-century vertical tasting. The post Biondi-Santi Riserva: a half-century vertical, 1968-2018 appeared first on The Drinks Business.
Every invitation to a tasting of Biondi-Santi, above all at the property in Montalcino, is a special one. And it is yet more special still if one has the chance to taste the legendary Riserva, arguably Italy’s most iconic wine, as db's Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay found out at a recent half-century vertical tasting.
There is something to be said for the life of the itinerant wine writer. And sometimes one has to pinch oneself. Indeed, so often have I pinched myself since receiving a certain invitation to a certain tasting that, a week after my return to Paris, my arms still resemble those of an extra in Hitchcock’s take on Daphné du Maurier’s The Birds!
So what was the invitation and what was the occasion? Not so fast. We first need to build just a little Hitchcockian suspense (and assume you didn’t read the title of this piece in any detail!).
So let’s put it this way. Every invitation to a tasting of Biondi-Santi, above all at the property in Montalcino, is a special one. And it is yet more special still if one has the chance to taste the legendary Riserva, arguably Italy’s most iconic wine.
Put in such terms, I have been lucky. I’ve had a number of special days, each time with the privilege to taste a different vintage of the Riserva. But this time was different. For never before had I been invited to the property for a vertical of the Bondi-Santi Riserva!
That is not surprising. For, in the 160 years since the estate produced its first ‘Brunello’, Biondi-Santi Riserva has been produced only 43 times. Its very first vintage, the legendary 1888, was the first wine ever to be bottled under the Brunello di Montalcino label. Just 2 bottles remain in La Storica, the inner sanctum of the chai of the Tenuta Greppo estate from which all of the wines we tasted were sourced.
The most recent Riserva is the 2018, released to the global market earlier this year – on the 1st of March to be more precise. It is the first to be produced from the separate parcel-vinification introduced following a major project to identify and map the terroir diversity of the estate. It is also the first to be produced by Biondi-Santi’s visionary technical director, Federico Radi.
The decision to bottle the Riserva, akin to a vintage declaration in Porto, is always a collective family choice. It is not taken lightly. Each Riserva is intended to be exceptionally age-worthy and a preservation of a specific style.
The wines for the tasting were presented by and tasted with Federico Radi, Biondi-Santi’s technical director since 2017, and Eleonora Guerini, the Brand Director of both Biondi-Santi and Isole e Olena. The older vintages were sourced from La Storica where the wines had been stored unlabelled under a simple beeswax seal over the cork to minimise the risk of oxidation. As with all Riserva releases from the estate, the bottles were removed from La Storica, dressed and labelled, with the addition of ‘la lunetta’ – a special neck label indicating the designated number of the bottle and the date of wine’s release from the cellar. The two oldest vintages, the 1970 and the 1968, had been topped up and recorked in the cellar in 2007 and 2000 respectively.
Biondi-Santi Riserva 2018 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; 100% Sangiovese; pH 3.35; 13.4% alcohol; around 8000 bottles produced). The 43rd vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. From a cool and wet summer perhaps, but this is a wine with great aging potential and a certain classicism that returns us to vintages of the past. Yet at the same time it presents the future image of the property in that it is the first in which all of its component parcels were vinified separately. Gracious. Ample. Quite simply, glorious and more approachable immediately that you might imagine. Aromatically effusive and intensely floral at first with wild Provençale lavender and violet alongside the rose hip, rose petal and black tea notes. There are wild Tuscan cherries too and plump ripe raspberries. A hint of blood orange. With aeration, the drier and more autumnal notes arrive. Underbrush. Bramble. Fig and dried raisins. Blackberry compote. Tobacco. A little leather. Espresso coffee bean. A little whiff of oak smoke too. I’m scared of using all of the descriptors for the wines to come in my first tasting note but there is so much here to try to capture! There’s a bloodiness to this too, a little hint of iron minerality – iron filings from the electromagnetism experiments in the school physics classroom! And flint – a Biondi-Santi signature. The acidity is bright. The quality of the tannins in exceptional. With aeration in the mouth, the freshness really comes through making this more vertical and lifted as a consequence than any of the older vintages. Creamy at first, the impact of the tannins is incredibly vivifying. They grab the wine and push and pull it like kneading pizza dough – stretching the fruit out over the long palate. Infinitely long and gently tapering with a high finish on the top of the palate. Delicate for the Riserva but incredibly dynamic. A silken threat unrolling towards a distant vanishing point on the Tuscan horizon. 97.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 2008 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; pH 3.4; TA at 5.5%; 100% Sangiovese; 13.5% alcohol; bottled in February 2014). The 36th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. An elegant vintage. Soft, delicate in comparison with the 2006 and with more secondary notes aromatically. A little truffle. A little cedar. A little sous bois too. Ample, rich, opulent, svelte and succulent. This exudes both coolness and depth. Camphor and camomile – and dried rose petals. Red cherry. Mulberry. Another Riserva – there are several here – that really draw you in, capturing one’s attention and directing your focus to the depth and concentration of the dark spherical core. Yet aromatically this is more and more aerial with aeration. It’s floral too but maybe a little more solaire than either the 2018 or the 2006– with saffron replacing the more herbal lavender and rosemary notes of the former. It’s more classically balsamic too. Ample in frame, yet always tense and racy. This is not perhaps the dancer that is the 2018. But it is a wine of incredible clarity and crystallinity for something so rich, deep and broad. Sapid and juicy with aeration in the mouth. This will need time for the tannins to resolve fully, this is a wine with a more obvious aging potential (even if that is a little deceptive). Tense on the finish. Above all, so fresh and aerial. 95.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 2006 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; 100% Sangiovese; 13.75% alcohol; bottled in June 2011). The 34th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. Sourced from a relatively small yielding vintage. Small bunches with lots of concentration. This is immediately seductive and beguiling. It’s almost the Pomerol in the bunch! Dark, deep, intense, not exactly closed but a wine with the perception of the density at the core of a blackhole. It draws you into to its depths from the first encounter. Rosemary. A little lavender. White truffle. Tobacco leaf. A plume of smoke from the tabac. Once again, this is staggeringly fresh, profound and very complete. Layered and deep, dense and compact, ample and full with a tight spherical core around which the wine gathers. The tannins are crumbly and chewy but, as with the 2018, their engagement brings an energising freshness rendering this increasingly sapid and juicy. Substantial and with staggering depth. Tight and tense and with impressive length. Spherical despite the depth and density. Deeper and darker and more dense than the preceding vintages. The fruits are perhaps crunchier too – with more of a sense of the skins here (and their tannins). Crumbly, crunchy and grippy in its tannic profile. The most Mediterranean. A wine with massive aging potential. 97.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 1998 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; pH 3.35; 100% Sangiovese; 13.5% alcohol). The 30th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. From a hot and dry yet higher yielding vintage. Immediately this feels more solaire. Saffron. Sour cherry. Leather. Truffle. Trompette de la mort. Cordite. Flint. Pot pourri and dried rose petals. Rosehip tea. Green leaf tea. Rich dark coffee. This is incredibly powerful, yet glossy and luxuriant. It’s also perhaps the most balsamic. The tannins are just a little less succulent than the 2006, but there are clear similarities. Rich and layered. With dark stone fruits and darker berry fruits. Tomato purée. Chewy, like the 2006, in a way with lots of tannic grip if a little less concentration. It’s less compact too but impressively layered. One again, there’s staggering freshness with the slightly more pronounced acidity bringing out the balsamic notes. 95.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 1990 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; 100% Sangiovese; 13.5% alcohol; just 7000 bottles). The 26th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. A warm spring and a dry but beautiful harvest, delayed by rainfall at the start of September. In the series this is the most like the 1998. Dense. Creamy. Succulent. Svelte. More glassy texturally with the same kind of crystallinity one finds in the 2008. It’s very different than the previous two vintages in the tasting. Fresh raspberry and loganberry – incredible for a wine of this age. Tobacco leaf. White truffle and champignon de Paris. More coffee notes than the 1988. A little hint of the soft leather of the armchair. Green and black tea leaf – Ceylon tea in fact. More fragrantly floral. That cordite and flint note again – but more matchstick than flint perhaps. Fresh floral notes and a little dried rose petal too. Rose Turkish delight. Angelica. This is fleshy with chewy, grippy tannins that are quite scrunchy on the finish. Sapid. More lifted than the 1990. Sustained by the acidity as much as by the tannins. Entering its plateau, this won’t necessarily improve but it’s certainly wonderful today. 96.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 1988 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; 100% Sangiovese; 13% alcohol). The 25th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva, 100 years after the first ever Riserva from the estate. Even more dark fruited, if not quite with the depth and concentration, of the 1990, with a petal florality that brings with it great freshness. But there’s plenty of freshness too from the dark berry fruits. At nearly 50 years of age, that is terribly impressive. Fig. Bramble and loganberry. Brilliantly harmonious. Perhaps the most gracious and svelte of the older vintages with a certain delicacy and subtility. The tannins here really get between the layers. Crystalline and limpid, glassy and glacial at its spherical core. Floral. Exquisitely harmonious. There are fewer tertiary notes than the 1990. And it’s a little less balsamic, even if it feels just a little more fragile than the 1990 – at its best perhaps and probably in mild descent (though that is likely to be dependent on the bottle). A gracious natural sweetness. Perhaps my favourite at this point. 97.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 1970 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; 100% Sangiovese; 12.5% alcohol; topped up and recorked at the property in 2007). The 16th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. We pass here into a different epoch. An incredible wine. More balsamic. Lifted. Aerial. Intensely perfumed. Floral too. There’s lots of bright acidity here. Very low pH (below 3.2). Sour cherry and fresh raspberry. Ample and still pushing the cheeks. The tannic mass is still quite considerable. More oxidative than the 1968. The tannins break in around the edges of the broad spherical core. The most evolved here and now past its prime. But a wonderful historical record. 92.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 1968 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; 100% Sangiovese; 13% alcohol; topped up and recorked at the property in 2000). The 14th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. My birth year and this is the first time I have ever tasted anything from this year – a tragedy in Bordeaux, a triumph here! A wine of great identity and personality, great freshness and lift. A touch of florality even at my age! Soft leather. This is gracious, plump and plush, lithe and limpid. Black tea, the softest armchair leather and something of the same texture. Impressively sapid and even a little sinuous. There’s some density still in the mid-palate. Less ample than the 1970 and better for that – giving the mid-palate more of a sense of density. Radiant. Fresh on the finish. Vibrant. Vivid. Singular. Impressively timeless. A wine that I will never forget tasting and that makes me very aware of my own mortality. 95.
There is something to be said for the life of the itinerant wine writer. And sometimes one has to pinch oneself. Indeed, so often have I pinched myself since receiving a certain invitation to a certain tasting that, a week after my return to Paris, my arms still resemble those of an extra in Hitchcock’s take on Daphné du Maurier’s The Birds!
So what was the invitation and what was the occasion? Not so fast. We first need to build just a little Hitchcockian suspense (and assume you didn’t read the title of this piece in any detail!).
So let’s put it this way. Every invitation to a tasting of Biondi-Santi, above all at the property in Montalcino, is a special one. And it is yet more special still if one has the chance to taste the legendary Riserva, arguably Italy’s most iconic wine.
Put in such terms, I have been lucky. I’ve had a number of special days, each time with the privilege to taste a different vintage of the Riserva. But this time was different. For never before had I been invited to the property for a vertical of the Bondi-Santi Riserva!
That is not surprising. For, in the 160 years since the estate produced its first ‘Brunello’, Biondi-Santi Riserva has been produced only 43 times. Its very first vintage, the legendary 1888, was the first wine ever to be bottled under the Brunello di Montalcino label. Just 2 bottles remain in La Storica, the inner sanctum of the chai of the Tenuta Greppo estate from which all of the wines we tasted were sourced.
The most recent Riserva is the 2018, released to the global market earlier this year – on the 1st of March to be more precise. It is the first to be produced from the separate parcel-vinification introduced following a major project to identify and map the terroir diversity of the estate. It is also the first to be produced by Biondi-Santi’s visionary technical director, Federico Radi.
The decision to bottle the Riserva, akin to a vintage declaration in Porto, is always a collective family choice. It is not taken lightly. Each Riserva is intended to be exceptionally age-worthy and a preservation of a specific style.
The wines for the tasting were presented by and tasted with Federico Radi, Biondi-Santi’s technical director since 2017, and Eleonora Guerini, the Brand Director of both Biondi-Santi and Isole e Olena. The older vintages were sourced from La Storica where the wines had been stored unlabelled under a simple beeswax seal over the cork to minimise the risk of oxidation. As with all Riserva releases from the estate, the bottles were removed from La Storica, dressed and labelled, with the addition of ‘la lunetta’ – a special neck label indicating the designated number of the bottle and the date of wine’s release from the cellar. The two oldest vintages, the 1970 and the 1968, had been topped up and recorked in the cellar in 2007 and 2000 respectively.
Tasting notes
Biondi-Santi Riserva 2018 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; 100% Sangiovese; pH 3.35; 13.4% alcohol; around 8000 bottles produced). The 43rd vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. From a cool and wet summer perhaps, but this is a wine with great aging potential and a certain classicism that returns us to vintages of the past. Yet at the same time it presents the future image of the property in that it is the first in which all of its component parcels were vinified separately. Gracious. Ample. Quite simply, glorious and more approachable immediately that you might imagine. Aromatically effusive and intensely floral at first with wild Provençale lavender and violet alongside the rose hip, rose petal and black tea notes. There are wild Tuscan cherries too and plump ripe raspberries. A hint of blood orange. With aeration, the drier and more autumnal notes arrive. Underbrush. Bramble. Fig and dried raisins. Blackberry compote. Tobacco. A little leather. Espresso coffee bean. A little whiff of oak smoke too. I’m scared of using all of the descriptors for the wines to come in my first tasting note but there is so much here to try to capture! There’s a bloodiness to this too, a little hint of iron minerality – iron filings from the electromagnetism experiments in the school physics classroom! And flint – a Biondi-Santi signature. The acidity is bright. The quality of the tannins in exceptional. With aeration in the mouth, the freshness really comes through making this more vertical and lifted as a consequence than any of the older vintages. Creamy at first, the impact of the tannins is incredibly vivifying. They grab the wine and push and pull it like kneading pizza dough – stretching the fruit out over the long palate. Infinitely long and gently tapering with a high finish on the top of the palate. Delicate for the Riserva but incredibly dynamic. A silken threat unrolling towards a distant vanishing point on the Tuscan horizon. 97.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 2008 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; pH 3.4; TA at 5.5%; 100% Sangiovese; 13.5% alcohol; bottled in February 2014). The 36th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. An elegant vintage. Soft, delicate in comparison with the 2006 and with more secondary notes aromatically. A little truffle. A little cedar. A little sous bois too. Ample, rich, opulent, svelte and succulent. This exudes both coolness and depth. Camphor and camomile – and dried rose petals. Red cherry. Mulberry. Another Riserva – there are several here – that really draw you in, capturing one’s attention and directing your focus to the depth and concentration of the dark spherical core. Yet aromatically this is more and more aerial with aeration. It’s floral too but maybe a little more solaire than either the 2018 or the 2006– with saffron replacing the more herbal lavender and rosemary notes of the former. It’s more classically balsamic too. Ample in frame, yet always tense and racy. This is not perhaps the dancer that is the 2018. But it is a wine of incredible clarity and crystallinity for something so rich, deep and broad. Sapid and juicy with aeration in the mouth. This will need time for the tannins to resolve fully, this is a wine with a more obvious aging potential (even if that is a little deceptive). Tense on the finish. Above all, so fresh and aerial. 95.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 2006 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; 100% Sangiovese; 13.75% alcohol; bottled in June 2011). The 34th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. Sourced from a relatively small yielding vintage. Small bunches with lots of concentration. This is immediately seductive and beguiling. It’s almost the Pomerol in the bunch! Dark, deep, intense, not exactly closed but a wine with the perception of the density at the core of a blackhole. It draws you into to its depths from the first encounter. Rosemary. A little lavender. White truffle. Tobacco leaf. A plume of smoke from the tabac. Once again, this is staggeringly fresh, profound and very complete. Layered and deep, dense and compact, ample and full with a tight spherical core around which the wine gathers. The tannins are crumbly and chewy but, as with the 2018, their engagement brings an energising freshness rendering this increasingly sapid and juicy. Substantial and with staggering depth. Tight and tense and with impressive length. Spherical despite the depth and density. Deeper and darker and more dense than the preceding vintages. The fruits are perhaps crunchier too – with more of a sense of the skins here (and their tannins). Crumbly, crunchy and grippy in its tannic profile. The most Mediterranean. A wine with massive aging potential. 97.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 1998 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; pH 3.35; 100% Sangiovese; 13.5% alcohol). The 30th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. From a hot and dry yet higher yielding vintage. Immediately this feels more solaire. Saffron. Sour cherry. Leather. Truffle. Trompette de la mort. Cordite. Flint. Pot pourri and dried rose petals. Rosehip tea. Green leaf tea. Rich dark coffee. This is incredibly powerful, yet glossy and luxuriant. It’s also perhaps the most balsamic. The tannins are just a little less succulent than the 2006, but there are clear similarities. Rich and layered. With dark stone fruits and darker berry fruits. Tomato purée. Chewy, like the 2006, in a way with lots of tannic grip if a little less concentration. It’s less compact too but impressively layered. One again, there’s staggering freshness with the slightly more pronounced acidity bringing out the balsamic notes. 95.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 1990 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; 100% Sangiovese; 13.5% alcohol; just 7000 bottles). The 26th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. A warm spring and a dry but beautiful harvest, delayed by rainfall at the start of September. In the series this is the most like the 1998. Dense. Creamy. Succulent. Svelte. More glassy texturally with the same kind of crystallinity one finds in the 2008. It’s very different than the previous two vintages in the tasting. Fresh raspberry and loganberry – incredible for a wine of this age. Tobacco leaf. White truffle and champignon de Paris. More coffee notes than the 1988. A little hint of the soft leather of the armchair. Green and black tea leaf – Ceylon tea in fact. More fragrantly floral. That cordite and flint note again – but more matchstick than flint perhaps. Fresh floral notes and a little dried rose petal too. Rose Turkish delight. Angelica. This is fleshy with chewy, grippy tannins that are quite scrunchy on the finish. Sapid. More lifted than the 1990. Sustained by the acidity as much as by the tannins. Entering its plateau, this won’t necessarily improve but it’s certainly wonderful today. 96.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 1988 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; 100% Sangiovese; 13% alcohol). The 25th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva, 100 years after the first ever Riserva from the estate. Even more dark fruited, if not quite with the depth and concentration, of the 1990, with a petal florality that brings with it great freshness. But there’s plenty of freshness too from the dark berry fruits. At nearly 50 years of age, that is terribly impressive. Fig. Bramble and loganberry. Brilliantly harmonious. Perhaps the most gracious and svelte of the older vintages with a certain delicacy and subtility. The tannins here really get between the layers. Crystalline and limpid, glassy and glacial at its spherical core. Floral. Exquisitely harmonious. There are fewer tertiary notes than the 1990. And it’s a little less balsamic, even if it feels just a little more fragile than the 1990 – at its best perhaps and probably in mild descent (though that is likely to be dependent on the bottle). A gracious natural sweetness. Perhaps my favourite at this point. 97.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 1970 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; 100% Sangiovese; 12.5% alcohol; topped up and recorked at the property in 2007). The 16th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. We pass here into a different epoch. An incredible wine. More balsamic. Lifted. Aerial. Intensely perfumed. Floral too. There’s lots of bright acidity here. Very low pH (below 3.2). Sour cherry and fresh raspberry. Ample and still pushing the cheeks. The tannic mass is still quite considerable. More oxidative than the 1968. The tannins break in around the edges of the broad spherical core. The most evolved here and now past its prime. But a wonderful historical record. 92.
Biondi-Santi Riserva La Storica 1968 (Brunello di Montalcino Riserva; 100% Sangiovese; 13% alcohol; topped up and recorked at the property in 2000). The 14th vintage of Biondi-Santi Riserva. My birth year and this is the first time I have ever tasted anything from this year – a tragedy in Bordeaux, a triumph here! A wine of great identity and personality, great freshness and lift. A touch of florality even at my age! Soft leather. This is gracious, plump and plush, lithe and limpid. Black tea, the softest armchair leather and something of the same texture. Impressively sapid and even a little sinuous. There’s some density still in the mid-palate. Less ample than the 1970 and better for that – giving the mid-palate more of a sense of density. Radiant. Fresh on the finish. Vibrant. Vivid. Singular. Impressively timeless. A wine that I will never forget tasting and that makes me very aware of my own mortality. 95. 
