Blog: Castello Monsanto | Toskana

Fabrizio Bianchi is spontaneity personified, and this quality has made him many friends, but not only, because his spontaneity expresses itself now and then in open polemics. As lord of the castle at Monsanto, an imposing 17th- and 18th-century building situated on the far southwestern edge of the Chianti Classico area - overlooking the towers of San Gimignano, from where the family once set out for Lombardy, later to return as a made industrial dynasty - he commands a vinological empire that over the decades he has brought to the forefront of the growing region. Aided by daughter Laura, a true 'donna del vino', Bianchi produces an impressive range of wines of the highest and most sophisticated standard, though the simpler products that keep the business going do not fall by any means dishonorably.

Throughout his career, Bianchi has fist acted as a trendsetter in this regard, which - not at all atypical of Italy's top winemaking - was usually first understood abroad. Bianchi's 'Poggio' was the first single-vineyard Chianti, the Tinscvil the first really good successor to the Tignanello, the Nemo an early, successful introduction of Cabernet Sauvignon to the Chianti region, and so on and so forth. But instead of resting on his laurels, Fabrizio Bianchi continues: cellar modernization, barrel renovation, renoveriung of the 'poderi', the list of tasks is long! He is also moving with the times in the style of his wines. Where a few years ago he brought the wines to the market very ripe, now he also pays attention to freshness and drinkability. - Gerardo [TS03/23]