Banfi Le Rime Chardonnay Pinot Grigio 2025
£12.75
The wine
Pale straw yellow. Aromas of green apple and white peach combine with fresh floral hints. Sapid on the palate with vibrant acidity, running through to a long and persistent finish. Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio together, and the better for it.
Le Rime means the rhymes, the idea being that the two grapes answer one another: Chardonnay gives the body and the orchard fruit, Pinot Grigio the crispness and the citrus edge. Both are vinified separately in stainless steel at low temperature to protect the aromatics, then blended before bottling. No oak, no malolactic, nothing to get in the way.
The producer
Banfi
View all Banfi winesBrothers John and Harry Mariani bought land at Montalcino in 1978 and, working with the winemaker Ezio Rivella, built one of the most ambitious estates in Tuscany. Banfi now farms around 850 hectares of vineyard on the southern side of the hill, making it by some distance the largest single holding in the appellation.
What sets it apart is the research. From 1980 the estate ran a programme of zonation studies, mapping soils and exposures plot by plot and trialling hundreds of Sangiovese clones to establish which slopes suited the grape best. That work underpins the single-vineyard Brunellos: Poggio alle Mura from the land around the medieval castle, Vigna Marrucheto, and Poggio all'Oro, released only in the greatest years. Banfi also made the first Supertuscan in Montalcino, Summus, in 1985.
Sustainability is taken seriously rather than decoratively. The estate holds Equalitas certification at both organisational and product level, and the Poggio all'Oro 2016 was the first Brunello ever to earn it. Banfi entered the Top 100 of the World's Best Vineyards in 2025.






