Italy · Montalcino

Castello Banfi

Mariani family estate in Montalcino, producing Brunello di Montalcino and the Merlot-Cabernet Super Tuscan Excelsus from a 2,830-hectare contiguous holding on the southwestern slopes of the hill.

The producer

Castello Banfi sits on the southwestern slopes 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: Giovanni F. Mariani Sr founded Banfi Vintners as a New York importing business in 1919, and when his grandsons John Jr. and Harry arrived in Tuscany nearly sixty years later, they were looking for land to build something at a different scale. They bought 2,830 contiguous hectares, planted roughly a third to vine, and within a year had also acquired the Bruzzone winery in Piedmont. Third-generation cousins Cristina Mariani-May and James Mariani lead the business today, with Cristina as CEO.

Brunello di Montalcino, made from 100% Sangiovese under strict ageing requirements, sits at the centre of the range. The estate's Super Tuscan flagship, Excelsus Toscana IGT, blends 60% Merlot with 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and is aged in Banfi's custom 350-litre barriques, larger than a standard Bordeaux barrel, which soften the oak's grip while keeping the fruit intact. The same custom barrel programme shapes the Brunello. From the 1980s onward, Banfi studied roughly 650 local Sangiovese clones to identify the best material for each parcel on the estate, a programme that ran for multiple decades and underpins the current vineyard composition.

Known for

Brunello di Montalcino DOCG; Excelsus Toscana IGT (Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon)

Notable facts

The story

The Importers Who Crossed the Atlantic

Giovanni F. Mariani Sr walked off a ship in New York in the early years of the last century and built a wine importing business. By 1919 it had a name: Banfi Vintners. For nearly sixty years the company moved other people's wine across the Atlantic. Then, in 1978, Giovanni's grandsons John Jr. and Harry flew to Tuscany, drove south through the Crete Senesi, and arrived at the hill of Montalcino. They had decided to stop importing Brunello and start making it. They assembled 2,830 hectares of contiguous farmland on the southwestern slopes of the hill, planted a third of it to vine, and within twelve months had also bought a Piedmontese winery called Bruzzone. The grandfather's importing company was now a production operation with addresses in two Italian regions. What remained the same was the name.

From the atlas

Castello Banfi

At A Glance

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

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.

The appellation law requires 100% Sangiovese for Brunello di Montalcino and mandates extended ageing before release: a minimum of five years from harvest for standard Brunello, with a further year added for the Riserva category. Rosso di Montalcino, from the same grape and often the same estate, is released after one year and serves as the earlier-drinking expression of the same place.

Soil And Site

The Banfi estate covers a wide range of terrain across its southwestern Montalcino holding. The packet does not carry reconciled soil-type data for individual parcels. What the scale of the estate does suggest is significant variation: 2,830 contiguous hectares across a single hillside encompasses multiple altitudes, exposures and soil parent materials. The unplanted sections, which include forest, truffle stands, and cereal crops, indicate the diversity of the land rather than a single-vineyard character. Specific parcel-level soil mapping was not part of the founding documents and has not been attributed in sourced materials.

Story

The Mariani family came to Montalcino not as growers but as traders. Giovanni Sr's New York company had spent decades building a business around importing Italian wine to the United States, and when his grandsons John Jr. and Harry arrived in Tuscany in 1978, they were looking not for a small family domaine but for the land to build something at a different scale. They chose Montalcino, assembled 2,830 hectares, and moved fast: within a year they had also bought the Bruzzone winery in Piedmont, which became Banfi Piemonte.

The ambition was not simply to own vineyards. From the 1980s onward, Banfi undertook a systematic study of roughly 650 local Sangiovese clones found in the Montalcino area, with the aim of identifying which material to plant where on the estate. That programme ran across multiple decades and shaped the current vineyard composition. Equipping the estate with the right Sangiovese took longer than building the infrastructure. By 2021, the sustainability side of the business had accumulated enough documented practice to earn Equalitas certification, following five years of annual Sustainability Reports.

The importer origin still shows in the estate's orientation: Castello Banfi was always built for a market, and the range reflects that. Brunello sits at the centre, flanked by a younger Rosso and a Super Tuscan bottling designed for international grape varieties.

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.

The Horizon vinification centre uses custom tanks that combine wood and stainless steel, allowing temperature control with some wood contact during fermentation where desired. These choices across cellar and cooperage add up to a deliberate approach: ripe fruit character from the southwestern site, oak integration rather than oak dominance, and ageing capacity without forcing early approachability.

Wines

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.

Excelsus Toscana IGT is the estate's flagship Super Tuscan and its most internationally styled bottle. The 2018 vintage blends 60% Merlot with 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, matured in the custom 350-litre barriques. The Merlot contributes plush dark fruit and softer tannin, the Cabernet Sauvignon adds grip and a cedar-inflected frame, and the larger barrel format keeps the oak integrated rather than dominant. Excelsus sits outside the Brunello appellation entirely, classified as a Toscana IGT, which gives Banfi latitude to use non-Italian grape varieties at the top of the range.

Banfi also produces additional IGT bottlings from the estate and operates Banfi Piemonte in the north following the 1979 Bruzzone acquisition.

In The Glass

Excelsus 2018 opens with blackcurrant and plum, followed by cedar and a thread of tobacco from the Cabernet Sauvignon component. The mouth shows the Merlot's weight first: rounded, with dark fruit filling the mid-palate before the Cabernet tightens things up with firmer tannin and a dry, long finish. The custom barrique programme is legible here. There is oak, but it sits inside the fruit rather than over it, and the finish stays on blackcurrant and spice rather than drying out on wood.

Brunello di Montalcino from the estate carries Sangiovese's signature: red cherry, dried violet and iron-tinged earth on the nose, a palate held up by firm acidity and tannin that takes years to open fully. The southwestern aspect of the vineyards gives the fruit more flesh than Brunello from cooler northern sites, but the acidity and tannin are still the wines' load-bearing elements. The clone selection work in the vineyard means the Sangiovese character is drawn from diverse material, which spreads the aromatic register and softens the cliff-edge ripening that monovarietal plantings can produce.

A Bottle To Understand It

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. Start here, then follow with the Brunello to see what the same cellar discipline does when Sangiovese and Montalcino hillside are the whole story.

Anecdote

Giovanni F. Mariani Sr walked off a ship in New York in the early years of the last century and built a wine importing business. By 1919 it had a name: Banfi Vintners. For nearly sixty years the company moved other people's wine across the Atlantic. Then, in 1978, Giovanni's grandsons John Jr. and Harry flew to Tuscany, drove south through the Crete Senesi, and arrived at the hill of Montalcino. They had decided to stop importing Brunello and start making it. They assembled 2,830 hectares of contiguous farmland on the southwestern slopes of the hill, planted a third of it to vine, and within twelve months had also bought a Piedmontese winery called Bruzzone. The grandfather's company was now a production empire with addresses in two Italian regions. What remained the same was the name.

Final Word

Castello Banfi is a large estate with a specific founding logic: American importers who understood the international market for Italian wine built the production side to match. The scale of the vineyard, the systematic clone research, the custom cooperage, and the two-country operation all follow from that original decision. The Brunello sits at the centre of what the place can produce; the Excelsus shows where the international-variety ambition lands.

Sources

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