2015 Jacopo Biondi Santi 'Schidione', Castello di Montepò, Toscana IGT

Three bottles available. From a near-perfect Tuscan vintage.

Schidione is Jacopo Biondi Santi's top wine, and the story behind it is a family argument.

The Biondi Santi part, explained

Jacopo is the son of Franco Biondi Santi and a direct descendant of the family that invented Brunello di Montalcino at Il Greppo. He split from his father in 1991 and went his own way, and in 1996 he bought Castello di Montepò, a medieval fortress estate near Scansano in the Maremma, on the other side of Tuscany from Montalcino. Six hundred hectares, fifty of them under vine, on galestro soil between 300 and 500 metres.

So this is a Biondi Santi wine, but it is not a Brunello and it is not from Il Greppo. It is Jacopo's own project, built to be a Supertuscan rather than a traditionalist's Sangiovese. Il Greppo itself passed to the French EPI group in 2017.

The wine

The blend is 40% Sangiovese Grosso from the family's own BBS11 clone, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot, aged in French oak barriques. That BBS11 clone is the one Franco Biondi Santi selected at Il Greppo, which is the thread connecting this bottle back to Montalcino. Because of the Cabernet and Merlot it goes out as Toscana IGT rather than under any DOC.

In the glass

Wine Spectator, reviewing the 2015, described it as maturing nicely and exuding cherry, plum and mineral. Italian trade notes add preserved red fruit, chocolate and mint moving into damp earth, undergrowth, iron and wild leather, over a palate that is powerful and full-bodied but simultaneously soft. We have not been able to confirm a published score for the 2015 at source, so we are quoting the notes and leaving the numbers alone.

The details

• Producer: Jacopo Biondi Santi, Castello di Montepò, Scansano
• Appellation: Toscana IGT, Maremma
• Vintage: 2015
• Blend: 40% Sangiovese Grosso (clone BBS11), 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot
• Soil: galestro, 300 to 500 metres, west to south-west facing
• Ageing: French oak barriques
• Format: 750ml
• Drinking window: drinking now, with room to develop

The 2015 vintage

A genuinely great Tuscan year. Wine Spectator rates the Bolgheri and Maremma coast at 97 and still calls it drink or hold. Carlo Ferrini's summary of the growing season was that the weather was near perfect the entire way through. The wines came out riper and more opulent than the higher-acid 2016s.

Serving and pairing

Decant two hours ahead and serve at 62 to 64°F. Bistecca, wild boar, grilled lamb, or aged pecorino.

Three bottles, shipped from our Florida cellar in protective packaging. Browse more Italian reds.