Production area: the entire territory of the town of Montalcino (Siena).
The territory of Montalcino, Siena village whose fortress stands at an altitude of 564 m over the valley of the Orcia, consists of a set of rolling hills and is bordered to the north and west dall'Ombrone, south by the DSB and to the east by the River Asso. Since the Middle Ages this village played a leading role in the political events in Tuscany. From the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, in fact, Montalcino was the center of the bellicose territorial disputes between Siena and Florence, as it became the last bulwark against the advance of freedom Siena Florence.
Among the many reasons that made him an interesting land of conquest must really remember the winemaking vocation: the local wines, both red and white, were already popular in the Middle Ages. There are no comprehensive historical sources allowing to determine precisely the year of birth of this noble wine, but the news today notes allow you to draw a path first historical documented that certainly see the Brunello di Montalcino as a direct descendant of the "Ruby" largely produced in the vineyards of the terraced hills of Montalcino and minutely described in the "Chronicles" of the battles fought between Florence and Siena between 1200 and 1500. Actually, in 1320 was not yet a Brunello wine, but a stream that came down to the Abbey of Saint Antimo through a wooded hill and now difficult to identify.
Still in the early nineteenth century the term "Brunello" was not used to describe a wine, but red grape, "Sangiovese Grosso", released on the hill of Montalcino.
This grape was obtained by lush vines with berries just very small and it seems that the low vigor of these plants was the main problem of local producers. With regard to these Montalcino red wines were produced by blending different grape varieties, but at the same time to studies and research on plants in their variety, the most attentive and well-educated farmers in the first experiments took place to produce wine made from grapes of a single type. In the second half of the nineteenth century took place at an important turning point wine by Clemente Santi and, later, his grandson Ferruccio Biondi (who added her surname to that of his maternal grandfather, becoming Biondi-Santi). These, operating a clonal selection of Sangiovese grapes, they held a wine obtained from fermentation of one variety: in 1865 took place the first vinification of which we know. Aged for a time in wooden barrels it issued a full-bodied wine, warm, harmonious, velvety, well above the average, the wine was baptized with the name of the grape used to produce it, Brunello. It was not easy to tell if the road had embarked on the right one and it took many tests, the consensus at the end overcame the doubts and other producers in Montalcino moved in this direction. Brunello proved popular in all the shows he attended, and was also appreciated for its longevity. The oldest bottle come down to us is dated 1888, and is naturally preserved by the Biondi-Santi family.
The final seal of Brunello wine at an international level has taken place over the last decades of the twentieth century, both for the general improvement of the quality standard, and for the image derivatagli the increasingly frequent contacts, including in advertising, with operators around the world. In 1980, the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG has been recognized.