Size & Type
Other

Sangiovese from Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy
$412
The J. G. Benda 2021 Pietrafocaia di Sopra is more reserved and introspective than the Brunello di Montalcino, trading immediacy for greater depth and textural complexity. The wine takes time to unfold, revealing a pronounced crushed-stone minerality that adds verticality and structure, while powdery, elegant tannins support an open-knit yet composed drinking style. Produced in only 2,444 bottles, this is a quietly compelling wine that rewards patience in the glass. Fruit comes from old vines planted in 1998 on limestone-rich soils with scaly galestro clay at a cool 520 to 550 meters in elevation. The 2021 vintage never finished complete malolactic fermentation and therefore presents especially fresh natural acidity.
Monica Larner, The Wine Advocate 96 Points
Pietrafocaia di Sopra is a high-elevation parcel in the woods named for the abundant flintstone littering the vineyard surface. A streak of pure limestone in the subsoil imparts a chiseled energy to this wine, a single-vineyard Brunello in reality that Benda has chosen to label as a (far from simple!) Tuscan red wine. This exceptional site truly imparts its unique soil signature to the wine, and the 2021 is a masterpiece: high-intensity, salivating, with impressive concentration and length. There’s a new guy in town!
Only 1 left in stock
To enter the Brunello game as a newcomer you need to have deep pockets – or a crazy amount of courage equalled by the same amount of passion and luck, like John Benda and Zoe Johnson. Once a wine collector and a financial advisor in the City of London, Benda fell heavily for Brunello and for Zoe, a feet-on-the-ground Australian-born marketing director for one of Italy’s largest pasta manufacturers.
In 2019 Benda radically changed gear, took a sabbatical, did a year’s stint at Il Marroneto, before picking up at auction two secluded plots on Montalcino’s highest part, the Passo del Lume Spento, at an elevation of over 600 m (1,970 ft). His winning bid didn’t cost an arm and a leg but it wasn’t cheap.
Walter Spelling, Jancis Robinson
Our vineyards are in the middle of the forest where there are no electricity or water supplies so all the treatments are carried out with rainwater that we collect. The effect of the surrounding forest gives our vineyards a natural balance in terms of biodiversity with so much wildlife and native plants that, especially in late spring and summer, overwhelm us in a positive way, with its colour and sound. We believe that beyond all the natural elements our energy also plays a part, both in the vineyard and the cellar.
John G. Benda
“We allow our wines maximum freedom of expression to carry a true sense of place, time and our passion in the glass.”
John G. Benda.
JG is in Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy. Although not specifically on the map below, you’ll find them in between Le Chiuse & Il Marroneto and just a little further to the west.

Where in the world does the magic happen?
AZ. AGR. J. G. BENDA, Montalcino, Province of Siena, Italy
You must be logged in to post a comment.