2021 J. G. Benda Rosso di Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy
2021 J. G. Benda Rosso di Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy

2021 J. G. Benda Rosso di Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy

$79.99

"Before my trip to Montalcino last spring, Giulia Negri told me about a new grower named John Benda, whose cousin she had befriended while studying in Rome. I made an appointment to meet John, and I discovered an extremely passionate, scrupulous vignaiolo with a most unusual path to becoming a proprietor in Montalcino. John was born in London to a British-Italian mother and Turkish-Italian father, and grew up in Rome, spending vacations in the Tuscan countryside. Following finance studies, John moved back to London to work in trading. After 13 years in banks, he felt ready for a change; meanwhile, he had befriended a wine collector who turned him on to top bottles from Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Piedmont, sparking a passion for fine wines and the stories behind them.

After quitting his job and doing a deep dive into the world of artisanal wine production (with the help of mentors he met along the way, such as Federico Staderini), John made the leap and moved to Montalcino, where he worked two vintages at Il Marroneto and befriended other like-minded producers including Marino Colleoni. An opportunity then presented itself, and John pounced: at auction he purchased 18ha of untouched forest containing two 1ha vineyard plots (planted in 1998 and 2006). It is truly an exceptional terroir, isolated deep in the woods at the highest point of the Brunello zone (500+ meters) on soils rich in sand, limestone, and rocky galestro.

Working with his partner Zoë, an Australian wine lover who previously worked in Italy doing marketing for Barilla, John farms biodynamically and has toiled tirelessly to restructure the vineyards, converting to capovolto training to increase the foliary surface. Like some other growers we work with, he does not trim the vine shoots for sun protection. In the cellar, wines are fermented with native yeast and aged in large botti. The lunar calendar determines timing of cellar practices, and wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered with minimal SO2, all while being closely monitored for microbiological stability.

John and Zoë have bottled their first wine, a 2021 Rosso. It is a bright, energetic Sangiovese of total purity, saturated with vivid red fruit and florals, all held together by a fine tannin and stimulating mineral backbone. There is a lot to get excited about with this young Brunello prodigy, and I am thrilled to announce KLWM will be representing J.B. Benda exclusively in the US. —Anthony Lynch
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Specs

First new Montalcino in years . . .

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First new Montalcino in years . . .

From Montalcino, the first bottling of J.G. Benda’s pure-fruited Sangiovese is the kind of instant classic we’re thrilled to have.

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