On the warm hill of Montalcino, south of Siena, Clemente Santi won a prize in 1865 for a red he called brunello; in 1888 his grandson Ferruccio Biondi-Santi bottled it as pure sangiovese, built for decades, at a time when Tuscan reds were blended, light and drunk young. For half a century the family had the style almost to itself.
Brunello di Montalcino was among the first wines raised to DOCG in 1980, and its identity survived its sternest test: the 2008 "Brunellopoli" affair, in which producers were accused of blending in other grapes, ended with the purity rule upheld. It remains 100 per cent sangiovese, long-aged in wood — dried cherry, leather and balsam, with decades of cellar life ahead.