Banfi Magna Cum Laude 2022
£23.95
The wine
A wine with excellent potential. The nose is characterised by red fruits with intense cherry tones, accompanied by spicy notes of liquorice and pepper. Broad structure, with sweet and powerful tannins, very well balanced and finishing with real persistence.
Magna Cum Laude blends Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Petit Verdot, with no Sangiovese at all, and is aged for around a year in French oak. Petit Verdot is the interesting inclusion: a late-ripening Bordeaux variety that struggles in its homeland but flourishes in the warmth of Tuscany, contributing colour, violet aromatics and firm structure.
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.






