96pts Jeb Dunnuck

The 2018 Brunello Di Montalcino will be released on March 1, 2024. The color is medium red/garnet, and the nose opens to fresh aromas of orange citrus peel, dusty earth, cranberry, spices, and juniper. Medium-bodied and more linear, it lifts through the palate with fine tannins and a refreshing, mouthwatering finish. It has a great saline feel and is a savory and fresh wine. This is a Brunello I’d love to drink over the next 10 years for its accessibility and refined texture, although I imagine it will also have some real potential for cellaring. Drink 2024-2040.

96pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The Biondi-Santi 2018 Brunello di Montalcino brings us to a new chapter in the estate's history. This is the first vintage made entirely by the new team (under CEO Giampiero Bertolini and Technical Director Federico Radi) following the 2016 acquisition of Biondi-Santi by the Paris-based EPI holding company. It is no doubt an exciting vintage for them, and it also benefitted from renewed oak casks and other important investments. (To date, about half the old wood has been replaced, and they continue to buy 5% to 10% new casks each year going forward.) The 2018 vintage saw above average rain and cooler conditions that led to slow-ripening. The wine is open-knit in texture and a little leaner in consistency, but it shows fresh acidity and pretty notes of violet, wild cherry and blood orange.

95pts Vinous

The 2018 Brunello di Montalcino is gorgeous, floral and finessed, wafting up with a classic Sangiovese profile blending dried rose and black cherries, complicated by dusty earth, worn leather and hints of cedar spice. This shows a beautiful ripeness of fruit, pure and lifted yet potent, with masses of red, wild berries and inner florals that cascade across a core of zesty acidity. This finishes long and staining with regal tannins and a tart cranberry tinge that lingers on and on. Simply magnificent, the 2018 takes the perfumed character of the vintage and marries perfectly to a core of vividly intense fruit. This is entirely atypical of the vintage and the result of extreme selection that reduced production quantities by 20%.

95pts James Suckling

So floral on the nose with lavender and lilac coming through clearly. Cherries and peaches with an orange undertone. Medium-bodied with firm and silky tannins that are lightly chewy. Salty undertone to the fruit and hints of cedar and black truffle. Acid-driven. Excellent energy. March 2024 release. Drink after 2025, but already delicious.

93pts Wine Spectator

This pretty, elegant red offers a firm structure to support its rose, cherry, strawberry, mineral and menthol flavors. The tannins gain the upper hand for now, yet the fruit component lingers. This finishes long. Best from 2026 through 2042.

Tasting Notes

Considering the weather conditions of the year, it is not surprising if 2018 has given a fragrant and energetic Biondi-Santi Brunello di Montalcino, so well refined and balanced to be defined as pixelated. As soon as you smell the wine you may feel the low presence
of alcohol together with a variety of invigorating notes as dried herbs, violet, orange zest, forest berry, Morello cherry and crushed mint. The palate is delicious and succulent, dangerously easy to drink now, but also able to age beautifully, thanks to its bright
acidity. A vibrant, juicy wine, which literally dances across the palate, with velvety and polished tannins. A saline mesmerizing touch adds complexity to the finish, remembering us what a wine with “sense of place” means.

About the Wine

The Biondi-Santi flagship wine, the Brunello di Montalcino embodies the spirit of Tenuta Greppo and then signature style of our winemakers, forged over 150 years of history with its balanced combination of fresh elegance, depth and aristocratic personality.

About the Winery

Biondi-Santi’s story begins in the mid-1800s, when Clemente Santi began isolating and studying a superior local clone of Sangiovese on the family’s Greppo estate in Montalcino. His nephew Ferruccio Biondi-Santi carried this innovation forward and, in 1888, produced the first wine labeled Brunello di Montalcino—a long-aged, pure Sangiovese wine unlike anything else in Tuscany. Through the 20th century, the family, especially Tancredi and later Franco Biondi-Santi, maintained a strict, traditional winemaking style: native yeasts, extended aging in large Slavonian oak casks, and an unwavering commitment to elegance and longevity. This philosophy earned Biondi-Santi a near-mythic reputation, with its Brunello Riservas considered among the most age-worthy wines in the world.

In the 21st century, the estate remained family-run until 2016, when the French luxury group EPI acquired a majority stake. They invested heavily in vineyard research, restoration of old vines, and modernization—without altering the signature classical style. Today, Biondi-Santi continues to produce highly sought-after Brunello and Riserva wines from its historic Greppo vineyards, blending tradition with careful innovation to preserve the estate’s iconic status in Montalcino.