Why it matters
The producer
Castello Banfi sits on the southwestern slopes of the hill of Montalcino in southern Tuscany, where the Mariani family assembled one of the zone's largest contiguous wine estates beginning in 1978. The family had been in wine long before Montalcino: Giovanni F. Mariani Sr founded Banfi Vintners as a New York importing business in 1919. His grandsons John Jr. and Harry made the leap to production in Italy, bought a large tract of farmland in Montalcino, and within a year acquired a Piedmontese winery as well. The estate now covers 2,830 hectares, roughly 950 of them planted to vine, with the remainder given over to olive groves, wheat fields, plum trees, truffle stands, forest and scrub.
Third-generation cousins Cristina Mariani-May and James Mariani lead the business today. Cristina serves as CEO and proprietor. The medieval Poggio alle Mura castle, which crowns the high point of the estate, has been part of Banfi since 1983 and now operates as a museum, hotel and restaurant complex.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Montalcino is a hilltop town in the Maremma-facing south of Tuscany, and the appellation named after it, Brunello di Montalcino, is built on a single grape: Sangiovese, called Brunello locally. The southwestern aspect of the Banfi vineyards catches the afternoon sun and warm air moving in from the coast, producing riper fruit than the cooler northern and northeastern slopes of the same hill. Wines from this part of the denomination tend toward fuller body, darker fruit, and more approachable tannin in their youth compared with Brunello from higher, cooler expositions. The trade-off is between immediate richness and the mineral austerity that the more elevated parcels can produce over time.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The clone research programme was the foundational vineyard decision. Studying 650 local Sangiovese varieties allowed Banfi to select material matched to specific parcels and aspects rather than planting a single commercial clone across the whole estate. Banfi researched roughly 650 local Sangiovese clones for future replanting. This helps spread ripening across the harvest window and reduces the risk of a single clone performing poorly in a difficult year.
In the cellar, the most distinctive choice is the custom barrique. Banfi specifies a 350-litre barrel rather than the standard 225-litre Bordeaux format. The larger vessel reduces the surface area of oak in contact with each litre of wine, which softens the wood's contribution without eliminating it. The oak itself is seasoned outdoors for three years rather than the more typical two, in a heptagonal stacking arrangement that allows even weathering, before slow, light toasting. The combination of longer seasoning and lighter toast produces barrels that add texture and roundness without sharp wood tannin or heavy vanilla character.
Wines to know
The range in view
Brunello di Montalcino is the anchor of the range. Sangiovese grown on the southwestern slopes of Montalcino and aged under DOCG rules produces a wine with full body, dark cherry and plum fruit, firm tannin, and the acidity that keeps Brunello worth holding for years after release. Banfi offers both a village-level Brunello and single-vineyard expressions that sharpen the focus to individual parcels on the estate.
Rosso di Montalcino uses the same grape and the same appellation territory but is released after one year rather than five. It carries the character of the hill at a lower pressure: the fruit is more immediate, the tannin less resolute, and the wine drinks well within a few years of vintage.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Excelsus 2018 is the right starting point. It is 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged in Banfi's custom 350-litre barriques, and it shows what the estate's cellar programme actually does: dark fruit from ripe Tuscan-grown grapes, rounded by the Merlot, shaped by the Cabernet, and integrated by oak that has been seasoned long enough not to cut across the wine. Blackcurrant and plum, cedar in the frame, firm but not harsh tannin, and a finish that holds its fruit to the end. It is also the bottle where the sensory case for the estate's specific cooperage choices is clearest: the 350-litre barrel produces rounder integration than a standard barrique would have.