100% Sangiovese This red wine is produced since 1892 and was awarded many times for its quality. This wine is the “heart” of our production and it is made with 100% Sangiovese grapes from our best vineyards in Montalcino. Property of Fattoria dei Barbi, located in the district of Montalcino and registered for Brunello di Montalcino production. Soil: marl, alberese limestone. Altitude: 300-500 mt slm. Average Age: 15 – 20 years. Orientation: South. Vine Training System: Cortina semplice. Vine Stock per Hectar: 5.000. Yield per Hectar: 65 ql.

www.fattoriadeibarbi.it

The Cantina dei Barbi, with its 300 wooden wine barrels and thousands of bottles of Brunello laid down for aging, has been open to the public for more than fifty years. During this time more than a million and a half wine lovers have visited our cellars, admiring the collection of bottles that date from 1870 to the present day, bearing witness to a continuity that makes Barbi unique in Italy.

The Brunello produced by Fattoria dei Barbi has won prizes all over Europe since the late nineteenth century, and still today all over the world.

The Fattoria has always been a careful custodian of tradition, but also attentive to innovation and a pioneer in every sphere of winemaking. It was the first firm in Montalcino to export bottled wine to France (1817), the first to sell Brunello by mail order (1832), the first to export it to America (1962), England (1969) and Japan (1975). It created the first “Super Tuscan” (Brusco dei Barbi, 1969) and the first single-varietal grappa (Grappa di Bruennlo, 1974). In the 1960s the estate was a pioneer in using organic fertilizers, in the 1990s it created the first “artificial nose” for analyzing wine, and in 2000 was one of the first to use carbon dioxide for cold fermentation of red wines.

The current annual production is about 800,000 bottles, of which more than 200,000 are Brunello. The 66 hectares of the farm have an average density of about 5,000 vines and produce on the average less than 1.5 kg of grapes per vine; thus each vine produces only a little more than one bottle of wine. The philosophy of the Colombini family and the Fattoria dei Barbi has always been to know and study the most innovative technology and then wed it to the best tradition, so as to improve everything we produce without ever changing its distinguishing characteristics.

• Sangiovese

  A black grape widely grown in Central Italy and the main component of Chianti and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano as well as being the sole permitted grape for the famed Brunello di Montalcino.
  It is a high yielding, late ripening grape that performs best on well-drained calcareous soils on south-facing hillsides. For years it was blighted by poor clonal selection and massive overcropping - however since the 1980s the quality of Sangiovese-based wines has rocketed upwards and they are now some of the most sought after in the world.
  
  It produces wines with pronounced tannins and acidity, though not always with great depth of colour, and its character can vary from farmyard/leather nuances through to essence of red cherries and plums. In the 1960s the advent of Super Tuscans saw bottlings of 100% Sangiovese wines, as well as the introduction of Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon blends, the most famous being Tignanello.