Tancredi Biondi Santi present at the Marteona Discovery Day event on April 17, 2021
Tancredi owner of Castello di Montepo estate will be present at the Discovery Day event there on April 17, 2021 from 12:00 am at the Marteona Restaurant located Poseidonos Ave – Avanti Village Plaza – 8042 Paphos, Cyprus.
A Wine Story
In the heart of Maremma, Jacopo Biondi Santi and his children are writing a new chapter in their family’s history of winemaking excellence.
The Biondi Santi family has gained a special place in the history of Italian winemaking thanks to the lively and passionate inventiveness of its members. The roots of this brilliant adventure go back to the 1800s, when Ferruccio Biondi Santi planted the first Montalcino vineyard with vines of a selected Sangiovese clone, called Sangiovese Grosso or Brunello: it was the first step towards a new way of making wine that would soon become an international success.
Moved by the same curiosity and innovative spirit, his son Tancredi was one of the minds behind the creation of a disciplinary for the DOCG, as well as the first one to introduce the particular custom of topping up the ullage levels of older vintages to improve their longevity. His son Franco, at the helm of the family company for over 43-years, worked hard to further the reputation of Biondi Santi as an international standard-bearer for excellence in winemaking. An extraordinary wine heritage, the fruit of over a century and a half of history now in the capable hands of Franco’s son, Jacopo, who in the spirit of his ancestors has given life to new family of wines combining tradition and innovation.
Jacopo Biondi Santi
It is here, that the family’s own exclusive clone Sangiovese Grosso BBS11 has found the ideal terroir to express its celebrated character and longevity. As the designer of an ambitious project dedicated to wine enhancement and the preservation of native typicality, Jacopo Biondi Santi has undertaken an impressive microclimatic and paedological study of the soil of Castello di Montepò, located south of Grosseto on the parallel of the fortress of Talamone. A team of researchers, geologists, agronomists and oenologists has collected and analysed a wide range of data, compiling a complete and exhaustive profile of the estate’s terroir and finding it to be exceptionally suited to the production of wines of the highest finesse and quality. Combining intuition and scientific rigor, Jacopo Biondi Santi thus began to create a new family of fine wines, expressive of a true bond with their natural habitat. The 1991 harvest saw the birth of Sassoalloro, a bridge between past and future, the cornerstone of a new monovarietal interpretation of Sangiovese: a label of immediate readiness with all the longevity you expect from a great Tuscan wine. In 1993, the family’s time-honoured love for Sangiovese inspired Jacopo Biondi Santi to experiment by testing it in various blends of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, creating the first vintage of the company’s powerful Schidione, the emblem of the estate’s visionary and innovative philosophy.
Tancredi Biondi Santi
Born in Siena, he completed his studies in viticulture and oenology in Florence, where he came to master the ideas, practices and techniques which would profoundly shape the pursuit of his vocation. Since his university years, Tancredi has worked in the family business, acting as the company’s chief international marketer and supporting his father Jacopo in the management of the estate. A passionate traveller and lover of different cultures, since 2017 he has forged a new course for Castello di Montepò, by completely redesigning its management structure and overseeing the Montepò 2030 project.
Castello di Montepò
Forests, hills and an ancient manor: Maremma, a delightful landscape of fields, olive groves and vineyards. A veritable house of wine.
The noble heart of Tuscany is home to the Montepò Castle, in the countryside of Scansano, a magical place where fields become legendary vineyards. Surrounded by woods, olive groves and the rolling hills of Maremma, the medieval manor has stood for centuries as an unconquerable fortress protecting the boundaries of the estate, just as today it overlooks the 600 hectares of the company’s holdings, 50 of which planted to vine. Here, Jacopo Biondi Santi has found the perfect vine-terroir interaction to fulfil his ambitious winemaking project.
Once the site of decisive battles, such as the 13th century clash between Charles I of Anjou and the Hohenstaufen, today the Castle of Montepò holds within its walls the legacy of the many generations of people who lived and worked here, the legacy of an age-old winemaking tradition. In Maremma, an area well known for its ancient viticultural vocation, first understood and expertly perfected by the Etruscans, the ancient Italic people who excelled in the study and cultivation of vines, experimenting with grafts, hybrids and cultivars.
Alandscape full of history, rousing and authentic, which Jacopo Biondi Santi regards as the crowning jewel of his vineland holdings thanks to its pedoclimatic virtues. On the estate of Castello di Montepò we find all the elements, in terms of altitude, soil composition, wind exposure and microclimate, needed to create a unique and distinctive terroir, the ideal environment to grow the Sangiovese Grosso BBS11 clone, an exclusive property of the Biondi Santi family. A veritable house of wine that, from its spur of rock, presides over the traditions and art of an extraordinary wine adventure.
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