In 1893, Francesco Nardi emigrated to the United States, leaving his wife, Maria Annunziata, behind in Italy to direct the farm and their children's upbringing. Upon his return in 1895, he brought back the design for a new plow which he developed and called the "Voltorecchio," described in 1903 in the American Encyclopedia of Modern Agriculture as the "Nardi System." This plow became the first of many highly successful machines developed by his business, Nardi Francesco e Figli. These new designs contributed to the revolution which transformed Italian agriculture at the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, Montalcino was no more than a tranquil Tuscan country village of a few houses, shops and vineyards.

In 1950 Silvio Nardi., Francesco Nardi's son, purchased the Casale del Bosco estate and in 1958 produced his first bottles of Brunello di Montalcino. The family's spirit was re-energized, and for two consecutive years, in 1952 and in 1953, the Casale del Bosco was recognized as being among Italy's most innovative farms. The family's deep ties to agriculture and the optimistic atmosphere of Montalcino in the late post-war years focused their determination to produce a natural product of tradition and excellence.

In 1966, Brunello di Montalcino was among the first eight Italian wine producing zones to be designated a Denominazione di Origine Controllata. In 1967, the Consorzio del Vino Brunello was established as a voluntary association of producers who were determined to sustain and improve the quality of the wines of their zone as they gained prestige. Silvio Nardi was among its first members. In 1980, Brunello di Montalcino became the first Italian wine to receive Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita status. The producers' awareness of the importance of astute viticultural practices and improved fermentation and maturation techniques led to a revolution in the eighties with the development of more sophisticated agronomic and enological concepts. The producers embraced these advances to the direct benefit of the wines. Brunello began to express its full potential.

Silvio Nardi focused on his vineyards, taking advantage of what technology offered and pursuing his belief in the importance of specific terroir, with the result that in the 1980s Casale del Bosco and its Brunello were among Montalcino's best. In 1991, a new generation began with Emilia Nardi, who continued her father's philosophy with knowledge, understanding, enthusiasm and committed dedication. In the exceptional 1995 vintage she first produced Manachiara, a "cru" created from a specially-vinified selection of the finest grapes from a designated vineyard within the estate properties.

Soil studies and clonal selection are continuing projects in the estate's older vineyards. In 2001 analysis of the various terroirs was completed, identifying the estate's potential to produce distinctive, elegant wines of longevity. Careful clonal selection will allow production of a Brunello with characteristics unique to Tenute Silvio Nardi. Also at the vineyard level, phenolic maturation studies are being compiled to evaluate progression of ripening in the various vineyards so that harvest dates can be determined as precisely as possible based on technical maturity and polyphenolic content of the skins.

The principal vineyards of Tenute Silvio Nardi are located on the original estate of Casale del Bosco, a property of 2,022 acres in the northwest part of Montalcino overlooking the Val d'Orcia. The estate lies in a prevalently hilly area between the flood plain of the Ombrone River and the place name of Cerralti. The "podere" of Oria, Sassi, Sant'Adele and San Michele, former sharecropped parcels of land, lie within the estate. Casale del Bosco's current 100 acres of vineyards, lying at an altitude between 790 and 1,150 feet, are planted to Sangiovese Grosso and fall under the Brunello di Montalcino and the secondary Rosso di Montalcino denominations. There is also some potential for planting under the Chianti and IGT Toscana designations. Soils here are comprised of clay schists and jasper, a type of opaque, granular quartz.

The Manachiara estate, purchased in 1962, lies in the southeast corner of Montalcino near Castelnuovo dell'Abate and covers 505 acres. The "podere" of Pinzale, Stercolati and Colombaio, as well as the vineyard of Manachiara proper, lie within this estate. The estate vineyards cover 95 acres and are situated at an altitude ranging from 919 to 1,279 feet at varying exposures. The vines of the Manachiara vineyard, the oldest of the estate, are thought to be rougly 45 years of age and occupy this extraordinary, 17-acre microclimate named "sunny morning," suggesting their illumination from early morning through late afternoon. Whereas the dominant soil profile of the estate is sand with clay content, the Manachiara vineyard also shows a calcium content and particularly good drainage which, with the advanced age of its vines, set it apart from the other vineyard parcels. The third of Tenute Silvio Nardi's estates, the Castello di Bibbiano, was purchased by Silvio Nardi in 1972. It covers 587 acres north of Montalcino in the Chianti Colli Senese appellation and may eventually be developed for viticulture. Its spectacular castle dates to the eighth century, and was a fortress for centuries before becoming a residence of noble Tuscan families. Plans are to eventually develop a historic hotel set in the glorious countryside of Tuscany.

Production as of 2001 among the three estates was approximately 23,000 cases. With replanting of some of the older vineyards and completion of planting of small unplanted but authorized vineyard areas, acreage will increase to a maximum of 200 acres and production to a projected 33,000 cases by 2015.

Brunello di Montalcino
South of Siena in the southernmost part of the Chianti zone is the medieval village of Montalcino. The commune named for it covers 60,000 acres defined on all sides by rivers: the Orcia to the south, the Asso to the east, and the Ombrone curving around the north and west. Vineyard areas within this rugged, hilly area attain heights of up to 1,900 feet above sea level, yet only a twelfth of the terrain is capable of supporting vineyards. Forests, table lands and olive groves occupy most of the area, and of the 5,000 acres suitable for viticulture, slightly less than half is planted to vineyards producing Brunello di Montalcino.

The name of the village of Montalcino is derived from the fact that the mountain was at one time covered with evergreen holm-oak trees; holm-oak in Latin is translated as ilex, plural ilicis, and the inhabitants were also called Ilcinesi; therefore, Montalcino, mons ilcinus, means "the mountain of the holm-oaks."

Montalcino was inhabited either by the Etruscans or by the Romans, and documents as well as ample archaeological evidence have been discovered in the area. Around the year 1000 the first hamlets grew up around the churches, abbeys and convents under the protectorate of the abbey of Sant'Antimo. Built in 1118, this oldest and most important abbey was constructed on the ruins of a preexisting church of the Carolingian period dating from 814. The establishment of Montalcino in its present form took place between 1200 and 1400; in 1462 Pope Pius II elevated it to the status of Città (city).

Between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries Montalcino alternated between brief periods of peace and frequent altercations with Siena. The era of free communes and the strategic position of the city endlessly obsessed not only Siena but also Florence. In 1260, after the historic battle of Montaperti, Florence ceded Montalcino to Siena. Thus began, for the entire fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a long period of well-being throughout the region and its countryside which saw the construction of many farmhouses and case-torre (literally, "tower-houses").

In July of 1526, during a period when all of Italy was subject to invasion by the Spanish empire, Montalcino succeeded in repulsing the attack of the Florentine troops and the papal army in only two days. In 1553, the Florentine army, along with the Spanish army and German mercenary troops, attacked the city and after nearly three months of fighting abandoned the siege. Two years later, on 21 April 1555, the Medicis and the Spaniards set siege to Siena, strangling it to the point of surrender. The only free stronghold remaining was Montalcino, which received many exiled Sienese families and established the Republic of Siena in Montalcino; for four years it withstood the strongest army in the world. In 1559 Montalcino was ceded to Spain and afterward to the Medici dukes.

Brunello di Montalcino, as compared to its region of production, is quite young. Montalcino is believed to have produced wines since the 10th century, when the present walled city was first established after the Saracen raids. Until the 1500s, records indicate that most of the wine produced was a highly valued sweet white wine of the Muscat grape called Moscadello di Montalcino. Only with the rise of the Medicis in the mid-1500s does any red wine production appear to have taken place, perhaps as a result of the family's ancestral roots in Bordeaux. Until the mid-1800s, the wines of Montalcino, whether red or white, were produced from the traditional Tuscan Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Trebbiano and Malvasia varieties. In 1842, the name "Brunello" was mentioned in the writings of the priest Vincenzo Chiarini, who was likely the first to identify this precursor of the clone of Sangiovese named for the exceptionally deep, black-purple color of its berries.

At the time, problems of vinification, blending and ageworthiness besetting Montalcino's producers prompted a pharmacist from Pienza, Clemente Santi, to initiate research toward solving them. He planted the first vines of what would become the family estate, Il Greppo, with the local vine called Brunello. In 1865 Santi won the first award for a wine bearing the name Brunello di Montalcino, and his grandson Ferruccio, son of his daughter Caterina, and Jacopo Biondi, continued to pursue his work. Determined to develop a vine which could produce a pure varietal wine of superior quality, he succeeded, in 1870, in isolating from his own Sangiovese vines the strain of Sangiovese Grosso which became known as Brunello. The vine yielded a wine of power and elegance distinct from other Sangiovese wines. A producers consortium was eventually formed in 1967.

Montalcino's soils vary widely. The areas situated in the north and east are dominated by clay soils high in volcanic sandstone. The vineyard sites in the western third of the region lie on soils which are chalky, gravelly and marked by loose marl high in calcium over a clay subsoil which, on the western fringe, is mixed with sand or silt deposits. From its four borders, the zone rises to its highest point near the center, at Poggio Civitella, where the soils are more strongly marked by galestro. The warm Mediterranean climate is cooled by the region's altitude, allowing the intense luminosity to gradually ripen the grapes. Flowering occurs during the last ten days of May and the first ten of June. Harvest normally begins in late September to mid-October. Under D.O.C. law, 70 percent of the yield is permitted to produce wines labelled Brunello di Montalcino; a selection may further be made based on grape quality, particularly in off vintages, to be bottled as D.O.C. Rosso di Montalcino, aged one year and sold immediately thereafter; or entirely declassified as "vino da tavola." The average annual yield in the Montalcino zone under all designations is 30,000 hectolitres (330,000 cases) among roughly 80 registered properties.

On March 28th, 1966, Brunello di Montalcino became Italy's seventh wine to receive D.O.C. designation, and was granted D.O.C.G. status in 1980. Requirements restrict maximum yield to eight metric tons per hectare under specialized cultivation, or one third that yield in mixed cultivation; olive trees may not be uprooted to replant vines. Regulations prohibit any blending of wines except of those from the same vines from the prior harvest, which must be clearly stated on the label. Obstacles to entry to the Brunello market are very high for new growers, requiring five to six years to produce a viable harvest plus the minimum aging of four years; new plantings are prohibited under EEC regulations.

The delicate pink juice of the tiny, nearly black-skinned Brunello grape yields a dark, purple-red wine which is characterized by extraordinary concentration, elevated acidity and enormous tannic extract. The wine is typically closed and quite austere when young, often backward and unapproachable. Generally considered to be young at ten years in an average vintage, Brunello di Montalcino's proponents contend that the best vintages can easily surpass a century and still remain in their prime.