Banfi Poggio alle Mura Rosso di Montalcino 2023
£21.45
The wine
Fresh and fruity, with a ruby red colour and a complex bouquet of ripe cherry and blackberry, well combined with spicy hints of liquorice and tobacco. The structure is broad and enveloping, with a long and persuasive finish. The ample body allows for good ageing.
Rosso di Montalcino is made from the same Sangiovese Grosso as Brunello but requires only a year of ageing rather than five, which makes it the approachable younger sibling rather than a lesser wine. Fruit comes from the Poggio alle Mura vineyards around the medieval castle. Often the shrewdest way into Montalcino, and considerably better value.
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.






